Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoyed a long and successful 19-year NASCAR Cup career. However, the road has not been easy, especially considering that he did not win a Cup title during his tenure. Despite that, he amassed 26 wins, two Xfinity Series titles (1998 and 1999), and two Daytona 500 triumphs, both 10 years apart. Currently, he is enjoying retirement and making a name for himself in the podcast business under the Dirty Mo Media umbrella, which is growing in popularity.

Recently on social media, he happened upon a Tweet which had a picture of one of his old cars. The car in question was his 2011 #88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and the venue was the Martinsville Speedway. To say that the car had a few battle scars would be a gross understatement. As per reports, the whole race itself was very chaotic, and Tony Stewart eventually won ahead of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. However, on reminiscing about the race, Dale Jr. made an honest confession on X.

How did Dale Earnhardt Jr. survive such an action-packed race?

The carnage began on lap 8, and Dale Jr. was among the victims, along with Hamlin. Though being fair, the #88 driver was the trigger, when he bumped into Kurt Busch and both of them spun. Fortunately, both could continue onwards, and the flag stayed green for a while. That lasted until Brian Vickers and Jamie McMurray collided on Lap 85, sending the latter spinning into the wall.

Fortunately, the race settled down for nearly 100 laps, though there were a few cautions sprinkled in the middle. Among them was Kurt Busch getting spun yet again, this time from Paul Menard. Later on, Vickers would bring out the caution, and not for the first time that day. In short, the #83 driver was proving to be a real menace on the track. There were so many more incidents that it was hard to keep track, and poor Dale Jr. was often in the thick of it. Merely halfway in and Junior was involved in multiple wrecks.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. replied to the post on X, making a bit of a surprising confession.“The one and only time I took an extra strength 5 hr energy before the race.” Judging by how the race played out, he definitely needed it, and it was well worth it in the end. While it was not the win he would have liked, Earnhardt Jr. finished in 7th place. This put him behind Stewart, Johnson, Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, and Jeff Burton.

In the end, Tony Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson with three laps to go. From there, he just soaked up the pressure from the Hendrick Motorsports star and held on to eventually win the race. As for Dale Jr., getting involved in multiple incidents only served to bang up his car a lot, but he still managed a respectable top-10 finish. However, the main storyline from this race was Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards.

Tony Stewart set up the title fight with this win

Heading into the 2011 Cup Series season, Jimmie Johnson was on a streak of five consecutive championships. However, 2011 was the year Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards fought tooth and nail till the final race to decide who would dethrone Jimmie Johnson. In Martinsville, Carl Edwards finished ninth and the win for Stewart was a huge boost in his title challenge.

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He’d better be worried,” Stewart said of Edwards after the race. “That’s all I can say. He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.” Tony Stewart got within eight points of the leader Edwards after the win at Martinsville which was a fine margin with just three races to go. Edwards praised Stewart’s efforts in the media center, saying, “I told you guys that I thought he was one of the guys that could win this race and be a guy that you have to beat for the championship, and he’s proven that. We’ll have fun. We’ll go race hard.” Warm words of healthy battle from the Roush Fenway driver.

Smoke’s response was rather cold-blooded, “

I don’t care what he says. We’re going to go after him for the next three weeks.” And indeed, Stewart did go after him. Stewart won in Texas with Edwards right on his tail at P2. Smoke came third in Phoenix, to Edwards’ 2nd pace finish. This set up the final race at Homestead Miami Speedway where Edwards had a seven-point lead over the Stewart-Haas Racing driver. Stewart won the finale and Edwards finished 2nd, causing a tiebreaker! This went in Stewart’s favor as he had won more races, five, to Edwards’ one.

2011 was certainly one of the craziest NASCAR seasons and we don’t blame Dale Jr. for the extra strength at Martinsville that day. The way they were driving back then, it felt like they would go through a wall to win the championship.