Dale Earnhardt Jr. elected to Motorsports Hall of Fame
NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been elected to the Motorsports Hall of Fame Class of 2026, per Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press. Earnhardt is the stock cars inductee and headlines a class which includes Pete Lyons (at large), Sammy Swindell (open wheel), John Morton (sports cars), Dave Villwock (powerboats), Kenny Roberts (motorcycles) and Steve Gibbs (drag racing).
Earnhardt, 50, is a worthy induction after a more than two-decade career in NASCAR. He won back-to-back Xfinity Series championships in 1998 and ’99 while driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for his father Dale Earnhardt‘s team, DEI.
He made the jump to the Cup Series the following season and immediately produced. Piloting the now-famous No. 8 Budweiser car, Earnhardt won two races his rookie season. He won another three in 2001 and finished eighth in the points standings.
Earnhardt was at his best in 2003 and ’04, winning eight races and finishing third and fifth in the points standings, respectively. After a few tough seasons at DEI, Earnhardt joined Hendrick Motorsports ahead of the 2008 season.
Earnhardt performed well in his first season at HMS before enduring a career-long 143-race winless streak. He snapped the streak at Michigan in 2012 and finished fifth in the points standings the following season, his highest finish since 2006.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes it into another Hall of Fame
His last of 26 Cup victories came at Phoenix in 2015. Earnhardt retired from full-time competition after the 2017 campaign. Earnhardt was named NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver 15 times (2003-2017), one shy of Bill Elliott for the most all-time. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
Earnhardt remains involved in the sport. He co-owns his Xfinity team, JR Motorsports. JRM has secured four championships, with Justin Allgaier the current reigning champion.
Earnhardt will soon be back in the booth calling Cup races for Amazon Prime Video. The first of five races to be streamed is the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 25.