Earnhardt ready for last trip around the Lady in Black

A year ago, Dale Earnhardt Jr. arrived at Darlington Raceway with much uncertainty.

Earnhardt arrived the day of the Southern 500 in a white T-shirt, glasses and jeans, giving a news conference to announce he wouldn’t drive again for the 2016 season. He wasn’t completely healed from concussion-like symptoms

A year later, Earnhardt is back driving at Darlington with a clean bill of health and a secure future. In April, he announced he was retiring from full-time racing and will work for NBC Sports.

“There were some weeks where I wasn’t coming back and knew I wasn’t coming back and didn’t want to come back and thought my career was over and had wrapped my brain around that,” Earnhardt said. “So, I am thrilled that I was able to get back in the car and compete, and I think about that. Me and Amy talk about it, or I talk about it with some of the guys or my family, abouthow much of a struggle it was and the results not having been where we wanted this year.

“Physically, it’s not a miracle; but it’s a blessing to be healthy and clear-minded and not in that space I was in. It was awful.”

It hasn’t been a storybook final season for Earnhardt, who has just one top-five finish this season. He needs to win this weekend or next week at Richmond to make the playoffs.

Kelly Earnhardt Miller, Dale’s sister, said Friday it’s been tough watching her brother struggle during his final season.

Earnhardt, however, seems at peace with whether he’ll make the postseason. He said a win at Darlington doesn’t seem too likely, given his struggles at the Lady in Black and his team struggling to find speed.

Earnhardt came close in 2014 when he led the race late before being passed by Kevin Harvick.

Still, Earnhardt and his crew aren’t giving up.

“We are just going to work hard. I don’t want my guys to remember this season because we fought and fell apart and got negative and nasty and short with each other,” Earnhardt said. “I want those guys to remember it, even if we don’t win, I want them to remember that we worked our guts out and we stayed at it to the very end. We fought hard to the finish.”

Win or lose Sunday, this has become one of Earnhardt’s favorite weekends of the year. He has been one of the most outspoken proponents of Darlington’s throwback weekend and has appeared in promotions leading up to the race.

Earnhardt’s paint scheme pays tribute similar to the AC Delco design he drove in the Xfinity Series in 1988-89 when he won 13 races.

On Friday, Darlington Raceway president Kerry Tharp gave Earnhardt a commemorative print and announced the track would donate 88 tickets in his and Amy’s names to children in the area to visit the track and learn more about NASCAR.

Also, Darlington’s Turn 3 suites were renamed Earnhardt Towers in commemoration of Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s legacy and honoring Junior’s final start at the track. Earnhardt Sr. won nine times at Darlington Raceway.

Earnhardt, Kelly, his brother Kerry and car owner Richard Childress spent Saturday evening sharing memories of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in a tribute event for fans.

“I have never been in a situation where anything like that has been done in my name, but I have seen it happen to my father quite a bit over the last decade,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I love when anything happens that helps people take a moment to remember him, recognize him, honor him. You know, that was one of the first things I thought of when he passed away, ‘Man, I hope that nobody ever forgets who this man was.’ And Darlington and the sport does a really good job of making sure that is never going to happen.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2017 at 2:06 AM with the headline "Earnhardt ready for last trip around the Lady in Black."