Dale Earnhardt Jr. Has Understandable Reason Why He Won’t Run Daytona 500 Ever Again

Dale Earnhardt Jr. fully embraces life as a family man, and doing so will keep him out of The Great American Race for good.

The former NASCAR Cup Series driver offered a perfectly understandable reason why he’ll never run the Dayton 500 again Wednesday during a press conference.

” … I’m old, 47 years old, and … I’m done taking risks.” Earnhardt said as seen in a video FOX Sports shared on Twitter. “I got two little girls that I love being around. I put my wife through a lot to race half of my career that she was with me. She put everything and her world on pause for eight or 10 years while we did all that. I just don’t know that at 47 years old I’d be willing to take on a race track that a young guy like William Byron is willing to do.”

Earnhardt retired from NASCAR in 2017 with a resume which contains two Daytona 500 wins. He returned to the Daytona International Speedway this week to drive the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in a two-day NASCAR Cup Series test, but the event didn’t stoke his competitive fire enough to lure him back into competition. Instead he said driving in that event will sharpen his skills as a broadcaster.

The 2022 Daytona 500 will take place Feb. 20. Earnhardt, like race fans everywhere, will watch from afar as the stock cars zip around the track at speeds of 180-MPH or faster.