Earlier, Dale Earnhardt Jr was at the newly revamped North Wilkesboro Speedway. This was a project near and dear to his heart, and he was heavily invested in getting the abandoned track back in ship-shape order. Now, after several months of hard work and plenty of toils, the speedway hosted its first race, and Dale Jr just had to break it in.

He said, “When I was standing here before the race started, getting ready to get in the car, I almost wanted to cry, I was so emotional because when every seat was filled, I still can’t believe this happened. This place was forgotten about, everyone was ready to argue with you, ‘they ain’t bringing it back’, ‘it ain’t coming back’.”

What else did Dale Earnhardt Jr say and how did the community react?

Nevertheless, Dale Jr worked tirelessly to ensure that his dream came true. As mentioned before, the driver just had to break the track in his first race. He qualified 6th in the late model race and finished in a fine 3rd place in front of a sold-out crowd. Naturally, many in the NASCAR community were happy to see Dale Jr’s dream hit the ground running.

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Dale Jr continued, “There’s a lot of people who believed in it, but not enough. But enough switches got flipped and enough fortunate things happened and here we are. I still don’t believe it, I tell you, that moment when I’m getting ready to climb in the car. Looking around and seeing all the people, you could feel it. The energy was amazing, it felt exactly like being here in 1990.”

Among his well-wishers was 19-year-old Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar. It is worth mentioning that the teenager is a favorite to snatch the JR Motorsports Xfinity Series seat. This is especially on the back of the news that Noah Gragson is being promoted to Petty GMS Racing in a full-time capacity.

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