By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
In this week’s edition of Flashback Friday, Kickin’ The Tires relives Dale Earnhardt Jr’s popular 2010 victory at Daytona International Speedway in the No. 3.
The Earnhardt’s and Daytona go hand in hand with both father and son seeing plenty of success at the famed Superspeedway.
Which includes a combined 20 wins at the track across NASCAR’s Cup and Xfinity Series.
Earnhardt Jr., would capture his sixth win at the track in the 2010 Subway Jalapeno 250 powered by Coca-Cola in the same number his father made famous, the No. 3.
This time it was in a car that honored his late father.
Earnhardt raced his No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet to his first points paying victory at the time since his Sprint Cup Series victory at Michigan in 2008.
It also marked his first Nationwide win since Michigan in 2006.
Earnhardt took the lead on pit road under caution with 26 laps remaining in Friday nights event, which brought the crowd to their feet.
However, even with victory on the horizon it was put in jeopardy.
With four laps remaining, fellow competitor Paul Menard wrecked bringing out the caution.
Even with old tires on his race car, Earnhardt decided not to come down pit road for service.
The gamble paid off as Earnhardt was able to hold off Joey Logano who pushed him on the final restart, as well as leave a handful of Cup regulars also in the field that night in the dust.
“I was so worried that I wasn’t going to win,” Earnhardt said in Victory Lane. “Nothing but a win was good enough. It’s emotional, I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of what I’ve done with this group. It was trying emotionally to put it together.”
It was an emotional victory as well for Tony Eury Jr, Earnhardt’s cousin and crew chief.
“We lost everything here. To come back with that number and do this, it means everything.”
Dale Earnhardt was killed in a last-lap accident during the 2001 Daytona 500.
The victory marked the third time in Earnhardt’s career that he got behind the wheel of the No. 3 since his father’s death, and he said it would be the last.
“This is it. No more 3 for me.” said Earnhardt.
(Photo: Sarah Handy/KTT)
Where is he now: After retiring from full-time racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series following the 2017 season, Earnhardt joined NASCAR on NBC as an analyst. Earnhardt did return to Xfinity Series competition in 2018 at Richmond Raceway in a race he dominated leading 96 of 250 laps but after a late race restart would ultimately finish 4th.
Earnhardt did announce earlier this season on his Twitter account that he will race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 event at Darlington Raceway on Saturday August 31.
“I’m running it because of the throwback campaign they started there. I want to be part of it. I think it’s important”, Earnhardt told his employer NBC Sports.
Earnhardt also owns Jr. Motorsports with his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Rick Hendrick which competes in the Xfinity Series.
The team currently fields full-time rides for the No. 1 of Michael Annett, No. 7 of Justin Allgaier, No. 9 of Noah Gragson and the No. 8 runs with a slew of different drivers including Zane Smith, Brett Moffitt, Ryan Preece, Jeb Burton, Ryan Truex, and Chase Elliott.