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RICHMOND, Va. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. led a 96-lap race Friday night, but it was not the coolest part of her only start of the 2018 Xfinity series.
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He had to kiss his 20-week-old daughter, Isla, before the event at Richmond Raceway. It's obviously something that he has not managed to do in his 19-year NASCAR Cup Series career that has ended after the 2017 season.
"It was the best thing for me tonight," said Earnhardt after his fourth place. "Being with Isla meant a lot to me, she obviously will not remember it, but she will have the pictures and all that.
"I do not know what she's going to think about my racing career and how she'll be signing up with her because she'll have no experience at all, we had to race together, it was very important to me personally . "
Earnhardt was committed to sponsoring Unilever to participate in this race prior to his decision to withdraw from the Cup race. It would not bother him to race one or two a year, maybe another one in Richmond or Atlanta, if the sponsorship package continues to support additional races for one of his JR Motorsports cars.
Now an analyst at NBC Sports, Earnhardt said the second and first qualifying rounds – and even winning a stage for the first time in his career – felt good, but he was starting to feel the pressure to win. to withdraw.
"I think I'll get everything I want from one [race] every year, "Earnhardt said." I came here and ran today to have fun. I had a lot of fun doing this, but it really made me feel good with the decision I made to go to the booth.
"I got up there [in the booth] for [Cup] practice today and I have been hard-wired, so energetic to watch the Cup guys run and do what we do on the stand. … I had enough fun to do it again, but not on a regular basis. I do not want to remove what I'm trying to do in the cabin and it takes a little off. "
With his decision to retire after undergoing several concussions, he stated that he had no problem during the race with regard to the peripheral version and that he was feeling at the Comfortable in the race car.
The only thing he did not feel good about? He tried to have fun but lost the race with a nil restart while he was second with 25 laps to go. Christopher Bell eventually won, followed by Ross Chastain, Daniel Hemric, Earnhardt and Matt Tifft. Earnhardt was the only JR Motorsports car in the top 5.
"I wanted to do everything I needed to do," said Earnhardt. "And about three-quarters of the race, I say to myself," If I do not win, now I'm going to be disappointed "and I'm going to end up in a corner with my expectations getting too high.
"It's easy to be disappointed not to have won because we should have done it, but I did not do a good job at this restart, I was outside the 2 [of Tifft] and just turned the tires. "
Earnhardt stated that he had the most fun since he had run late models before embarking on a NASCAR career in 1997. He did not seem to miss what he called feeling. to "take your breath away" in the Cup garage.
"As I started to run well, many of those expectations I hated about this job started coming back," said Earnhardt. "I'm sitting there, no, do not let that happen."
"I say to myself, 'Do not get upset so much that you go wrong if you do not win. "
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