By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
Since NASCAR’s Throwback Weekend was introduced at the Southern 500 in 2015, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has honored Buddy Baker, his father Dale Earnhardt Sr., and has thrown back to himself. One day, others will honor him at Darlington Raceway.
Darlington’s 2020 Throwback Weekend has the theme of champions. Drivers, sponsors, and teams are encouraged to honor past champions from NASCAR’s history. Earnhardt won back-to-back NASCAR Xfinity Series Championships in 1998 and 1999.
Earnhardt found the thought of drivers one day honoring him exciting:
“I think that’s the ultimate tip of the cap. I’ve been going to the Darlington races for several years now and looking at all of the great ideas people come up with. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve thrown back to different drivers and had fun with those experiences.
“I know by watching the reaction of other drivers, Burton, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, seeing their reactions and comments about it when their paint schemes are out there running. It’s got to be a great feeling.”
The theme of honoring champions is fitting for 2020 with Darlington Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time. For the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Darlington’s Throwback Weekend is one week before the regular season finale.
For Earnhardt, having the ‘Track too Tough to Tame’ in the playoffs just adds to the optimism around the 2020 season:
“I think it’s going to be an exciting year. The way the playoffs are stacked up it’s going to be pretty insane.
“We had some rule changes come out recently that I think people are excited about. I’m glad [NASCAR] made some changes to try to improve things for the short tracks and road courses.
“Dover, New Hampshire, and a couple of other tracks are going to benefit greatly from the changes that they made. It’s only going to make things even more exciting as we go throughout the races. That change between packages for the teams is going to be a tough one and it’s going to force these guys to shine and be up on their game when it counts.”
The Southern 500 is on Sunday, Sept. 6 on Darlington Raceway’s traditional Labor Day weekend spot on the NASCAR schedule.