The first to greet Dale Earnhardt Jr. upon climbing out of the car on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway was Shane Van Gisbergen.
It was the continuation of a conversation the two had before the race in which the three-time Supercars champion turned NASCAR rookie said he was looking forward to sharing the track with the two-time Daytona 500 champion at least this one.
Naturally, they have never raced before.
“I was helping him out of the car,” Van Gisbergen said. “He’s pretty old.”
It was a joke.
“We had a great battle early in the race and then he was smashing my car on the cool down lap. That was a lot of fun.”
Then came Ryan Truex, who received the signature Earnhardt neck hug, as the two ribbed each other an epic 60 lap duel for fifth over the closing laps.
After that came Marty Snider with the CW Network and a five-minute media scrum followed by the obligatory beers with anyone who wanted to come by and partake. It’s a tradition anytime Earnhardt concludes a rare start behind the wheel of a race car these days.
This was a good night, but boy, it sure didn’t look like one for half the race.
Earnhardt took the green flag and couldn’t hear anyone. Radio issues. They swapped channels, swapped ear pieces and eventually had to swap an entire helmet. He spent 100-plus laps clearing himself because he couldn’t hear spotter TJ Majors whatsoever.
“Finally, they stuck a radio with a short harness in it and a button I could clip to my chest and I could hear them and talk back under caution,” Earnhardt said afterwards. “It worked out and we didn’t lose any laps.”
Then, he left his prescription glasses in the first helmet, drove off without them. He got them back under he next caution and pit stop, and then in true Earnhardt fashion …
“I took them off,” he said. “I can see you great. I just can’t see the dash to read the little numbers. They’re like, how hot is it and I’m like, it’s two hundred and something.”
Earnhardt flipped off Riley Herbst and then radioed over to Majors to relay the message that he didn’t mean it.
“Is he 21?”
He’s 24.
“We’ll go drink beers.”
So, through everything that happened, Earnhardt had a chance to challenge for a top-5 by the end of the night, but he just could not clear Ryan Truex, a meaningful battle because brother Martin Jr. is one of his best friends.
“I needed him to slow down a little bit,” Earnhardt said. “He was loose and I was tight. I could almost get to his right rear in Turn 2 but I was worried about jumping the cushion and hitting the fence. I was getting tight. We dropped the track bar and didn’t need to that last run.
“I was trying to pass him because I knew Martin was watching and was pulling for him. I wanted to beat him and rub it in. We’re going hunting in a couple of weeks.”
The younger Truex told him he just wasn’t going to give him the spot.
“I know everyone loves you, and I love you too, but it was fun to race him hard,” Truex said. “Obviously he races with respect. It’s so freaking hard to do this part-time. For him to come here, and he only does this once a year where I do it a couple, that showed the caliber of driver he is to jump off the couch and battle for a top-five; that was fun.”
Brandon Jones, who was watching directly behind them, echoed that sentiment.
“I was shocked he ran as good as he did to be honest with you,” Jones said. “He’s a good race car driver and he’s been doing it for years but when you take that long off, that makes it difficult, but he clearly prepared hard.
“He made a little bobble trying to pass (Truex) and that opened the door for me to get him.”
Earnhardt, meanwhile, was also trying to get a place to stay in New Zealand for a vacation at some point and that was the other part of the conversation with SVG. It harkens back to a trip Earnhardt made to the V8 Super School owned by Marcos Ambrose and Paul Morris.
“This was like 20 years ago, I went for a week or two weeks, and had a blast and became a big Supercars fan,” Earnhardt said. “I’m going back to New Zealand and told him, if I go, I want to stay at your place and you can show me around.
“He’s a good dude and all those dudes down there are. Their whole outlook on life, New Zealanders and Australians, they have a good outlook on life and I want to take Amy and the kids someday.”
Overall, it was a good time, and exactly the kind of holistic experience Earnhardt wanted out of his latest one-off Xfinity Series start, and one that he teased could be his last earlier in the day.
“I loved every lap,” Earnhardt said. “It was great. I mean, I got everything I wanted out of this. I’ll miss it next year, and thinking about it now, I’ll probably sign up next year for somewhere else. I’m trying really hard not to think about where I’ll run right now but I do want to take next year off, focus on my broadcasting and make sure that’s a priority and my family too.”
So he would be alright if this was his last one?
“Yeah, I could shut her down with a top-10 but I’m not going to.”
There it is.
He’s not going to and he will also spend next year making a handful of Late Model starts and at 51, he won’t be rusty, nor will he be any older than Mark Martin who won his last Cup Series race at 50 years old.
“There were some guys named Gant (Harry), and Allison (Bobby) that were winning races in their 50s so it’s damn doable and not anything too crazy,” he said.
So here’s to 2026.