Dale Earnhardt Jr. came to a big realization when he heard that Martin Truex Jr. was retiring from NASCAR. On the latestDale Jr. Downloadpodcast episode, Earnhardt explained why he was sad to see Truex announce his retirement.
“You kind of come into this situation where you got guys that you race with most of your career and their careers are now coming to an end,” Earnhardt said. “It’s just a reminder of getting old. It’s a reminder of you’re further along in this life than you realize or than maybe you want to be. …The 30s are gone and the 40s are gone. Truex is only 43, which I said it on this show, 43 is the number.”
Earnhardt went on to explain why 43 is the magic age in NASCAR. “43 is the year where if you’re a stock car driver in NASCAR, 43 is the age where you are more than likely going to see a unique production in performance,” he said.” Earnhardt went on to talk about his retirement and the reason for it which had to do with health.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he doesn’t ‘look’ or ‘feel’ old
“I knew I was retiring early at least in my mind,” Earnhardt explained. “I still feel sharp enough, young enough to jump in there and do it right now at 50 (or 49, soon to be 50). I still feel like I felt 10 years ago or 15 years ago. I don’t feel old. I don’t think old. But I knew I was retiring earlier than I wanted to or would likely retire. To ease my mind a little bit I went in and dove into a dozen race car drivers that had retired recently.”
Earnhardt mentioned Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart “and a handful of other guys” as the recently retired drivers who competed past the age of 43. He said in most cases “their success began to dwindle” once they passed 43, which led to Earnhardt talking about his production once he turned that age in 2017.
“That probably wouldn’t have been all that great or all that fun to race a few more years just doing at that level of performance,” Earnhardt said. “We might have been able to fix it, but I don’t think the odds are in our favor.”
In Earnhardt’s final Cup Series season, he won zero races and finished 21st in the standings. Truex has yet to win a race this year but has earned seven top-10 finishes and four top-five finishes in 17 races.
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