By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
In this week’s edition of Flashback Friday, Kickin’ The Tires relives when NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Goody’s Headache Relief 500 from Martinsville Speedway on October 26, 2014 in the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr started the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (Now MENCS) Goody’s Headache Relief 500 at the track known as the paperclip from the 23rd position but as the event wound down and a late race caution occurred it was in Earnhardt’s favor.
Earnhardt was out front with the lead when with 11 laps remaining the caution flag flew for a wreck involving Marcos Ambrose and Kyle Larson.
Earnhardt and his crew chief Steve Letarte had a decision to make. Stay out or come in for pit service for fresh tires. Ultimately, Letarte decided to bring his driver down pit road for fresh tires.
When the race resumed with only seven laps remaining, Earnhardt found himself in fifth behind Tony Stewart, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., David Ragan and Clint Bowyer, all of whom opted to stay out on the race track.
Earnhardt quickly was able to work his way into the second position and power his way by race leader Tony Stewart to recapture the lead and cruise his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet to victory.
“We’ve been trying to win here for so many years. This place is so special to me; I’ve wanted to win here so bad. It’s a real emotional win,” Earnhardt said.
“This team on pit road was great and Steve and the guys did a real good job all day. They gave me a great shot at it there with the call at the end to take tires. I can’t believe we won here. This means so much to all of us. It’s just real emotional.”
(Photo by: Robert Laberge/NASCAR via Getty Images)
The win was one that Hendrick Motorsports as a whole wouldn’t forget as Earnhardt’s win came the same weekend of the 10-year anniversary of a plane that crashed on its way to Martinsville, killing all 10 people on board including Rick Hendrick’s own son Ricky, brother and his two nieces.
“I lost my daddy a long time ago and I know how hard that is. I can’t imagine losing the magnitude of people that Rick lost”, Earnhardt said. My heart goes out to him during this weekend. I love that his cars are good here to get to victory. This honors them.”
Where Dale Jr is 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.
In 2019, Earnhardt competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sports Clips Haircuts VFW 200 from Darlington Raceway at the end of August. Earnhardt went on to finish fifth in the event after starting 14th on the grid.
Read more: Dale Earnhardt Jr reflects on fifth place Darlington Raceway throwback finish https://kickinthetires.net/dale-jr-reflects-on-fifth-place-darlington-raceway-throwback-finish/
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.
Furthermore, as of 2019 Earnhardt is part owner of FilterTime with NASCAR driver Blake Koch. The company sells air filters for your home which are delivered right to your door automatically reminding you to change them.