If you’re a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, you probably wonder from time to time if he’ll run another NASCAR Cup Series race anytime soon. Forget it.
Standing on pit road at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway on Thursday, he quickly dismissed that notion in between practice runs on the track’s 4/10ths-of-a-mile asphalt oval.
“I don’t get the itch to drive even one Cup race,” said Earnhardt, who retired from Cup racing after the 2017 season. “People just don’t really appreciate how hard it is to get into one of those cars and compete with those drivers on a one-off deal.
“It is impossible to go in there and be anywhere near competitive. When you’ve raced as much as I have and you don’t have much of a chance to be competitive, you’re not going to be really interested in doing that.”
What Earnhardt is really interested in doing these days is racing the Late Model stock cars he began in as a teenager. He’ll do that on Saturday night, when he competes in the 16th annual Hampton Heat 200 in front of the 6,500 fans who gobbled up the available tickets weeks ago in just four days to see the NASCAR legend voted the Cup Series’ Most Popular Driver 15 consecutive seasons.
Earnhardt runs up to six Late Model races a year, working them in around his myriad commitments as a racing broadcaster, podcaster, stock car team and (CARS Tour) series owner and businessman. Above all, he prioritizes time with wife Amy and daughters Isla, 6, and Nicole, 3.
“If I had my way, I’d be running 25 times a year in these (Late Model) cars,” he said. “I’d be running like crazy, but with everything going on, I can’t fit in more than three-to-six a year.
“I do a ton of traveling and my family is my priority — being with them and having experiences with them.”
This year’s Hampton Heat crowd is reckoned to be one of the largest at the track since the memorial gathering for his father, seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. That took place days after he was killed in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
The reverence in which Earnhardt Jr. — a two-time Daytona 500 winner — holds Langley Speedway might surprise some.
His late mother, Brenda Jackson, lived in Hampton Roads for about 25 years, and he would visit her twice a year. Earnhardt Jr. fondly remembers those summer Saturday nights as a kid when stepfather Willie Jackson, who competed for a time at the track, would bring him to Langley.
Memories include watching Elton Sawyer, a three-time Late Model champ at Langley in the early 1980s, now NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition. He got to know his stepdad’s friend Wayne Hanbury, a popular Late Model driver at Langley in the 1970s and ’80s.
“I’ve always had this really cool admiration for the track,” he said. “I loved coming here.
“I’ve never even run a lap here, so I was anxious to check that box off at some point.”
During practice Thursday, Earnhardt learned what countless other first-timers before him have learned: that the flat Langley oval is not easy to get around. Speed wasn’t a problem.
“That’s a great thing,” Earnhardt said. “Usually when I go somewhere to test, that first run is nowhere near where we need to be speed-wise.”
Handling in tricky Turns 1 and 2 was another matter. So, after several practice laps, Earnhardt turned to another Langley Speedway driver he’s known for decades: record-setting seven-time Late Model champion Phil Warren.
“I have a bunch of trust in him,” Earnhardt said of Warren. “He was racing back in the ’90s when I was racing these cars, and he was the hot shoe back then, so I knew I could trust him for some information.”
Warren was on hand Thursday to help his grandson, 16-year-old rising star Ryley Music, prepare for the Hampton Heat. During one break in practice, Warren’s daughter (Music’s mom) Amy Music gave Earnhardt a No. 47 Phil Warren t-shirt.
“That’s freaking bad-ass,” Earnhardt said, genuinely pleased. “Willie (Jackson) taught me all about Phil and why Phil’s great.
“Then I got to be at the same racetrack with him, but I never really got to race with him because he was always in front.”
Amy Music related a story about Earnhardt running into the rear bumper of Warren under caution during a race at Myrtle Beach in the 1990s. She added, “My mom wanted to beat you up.”
Earnhardt laughed and said, “I probably deserved it,” and Amy countered, “But you called and apologized (for the incident) and she was like ‘OK.’ ”
Such moments underscore how much fun Earnhardt is having getting back to his weekly racing roots. It’s no wonder he’s so excited to race in the Hampton Heat and would race in 25 more Late Model races like it if he had the time.
“There’s a lesson I’ve learned that I can share with people who are younger that might read this,” he said, referring to his return in middle age to Late Model racing. “I put off, hesitated and (dragged) my feet on reconnecting with this chapter of my life.
“I raced these cars, fell in love with them years ago, and then I moved on and did what I did in the Cup Series. I should have done that a decade ago.
“I regret that.”
Langley Speedway is one of those places he most regretted not racing at.
“I’m finally getting (to race) here for the first time,” he said. “It’s a box I wanted to check because of my respect, not only for the racetrack itself and how critical it is for Late Model Stock racing, but for the drivers — Wayne (Hanbury), Phil (Warren) and Elton (Sawyer) — who cut their teeth here.
“It’s just got so much history.”
___
16th annual Hampton Heat 200
What: 200-lap stock car race featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. and 37 other local and regional racing standouts.
Where: Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway, 11 Dale Lemonds Drive in Hampton.
When: Racing begins at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday with Super Street, Super Truck and Pro Six divisions, followed by the Hampton Heat at approximately 8:30.
Tickets: Sold out.
On the air: FloRacing.com
Marty O’Brien, mjobrien@dailypress.com
