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SPENCER: Dale Jr. Ready To Retire?
Judging by the way he’s racing and acting, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks ready to hang it all up...
Jimmy Spencer  |  Posted October 13, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Dale Earnhardt Jr. last won a Sprint Cup Series race in June 2008. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ready to retire from racing?

Well, probably not officially, but you wouldn’t know that by the way he has been driving and talking lately.

One week after asking on his team radio at Dover whether the Washington Redskins had won their football game that day, Dale Jr. got out of his car at Kansas Sunday and gave a very disappointing interview. The media asked him about his day and he said he was more worried about his Fantasy Football League. What?! Where is his focus and where are his priorities?

I have a major problem with that response as a NASCAR fan, as a former competitor and as a TV analyst in the sport. I have a problem with that answer as a fan of sports, period.

Dale Jr. finally made the Chase again this year, and everyone was happy and hopeful for him. But every time we think he’s starting to live up to some of the expectations that come with being NASCAR’s most popular driver, he pulls the rug out from under us.

I like Dale Jr. but I cannot defend what he said Sunday. In fact, as a retired competitor, I am embarrassed by his comments and I feel sorry for his fans. I may not have won a bunch of Cup Series races but I never would have gotten out of a race car and said I was more concerned about my Fantasy Football League team than how my car ran. That’s a slap in the face of everyone who bought your souvenirs, sought out your autograph or spent their afternoon rooting for you.

Then he went on to say his main goal is to win another race this year. But that’s the true fantasy. I really don’t see Dale Jr. winning another race ever because he lacks something. And that something is heart.

His old man had more heart for this sport than anyone ever has or ever will. I would put Dale Earnhardt, Sr., up against any other competitor when it comes to having the most heart and love for this sport. It’s obvious Dale Jr. doesn’t share the same level of sentiment.

Show some heart like Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart or Kevin Harvick. I pick on Busch all the time on NASCAR Race Hub because he wears his emotions on his sleeve (and on his radio), but if I owned a Cup team, he would be one of the first drivers I’d hire. He has the desire to win races and wants to be perfect – his team, his driving and his car. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, John Elway, Joe Namath and all the great athletes had that same desire. All they wanted to do was win and that desire consumed them. Dale Sr. was that way.

If you didn’t finish as well as you thought you should, get out of the car, kick a tire and be pissed off. Show some emotion and show that you care. Don’t say you would rather be playing some football game. Fans will be more supportive of you and could defend a lack of performance if they see that heart. For the same reason, I will defend Kurt Busch until I’m blue in the face because he cares. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t lose his mind on the radio every week. This sport was built on emotion.

Not only is Dale Jr. being unfair to his fans and letting them down with this display of what appears to be indifference, he is losing fans on a weekly basis. His fans are moving over to guys like Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch. We’ve seen a lot of fans rally around Brad Keselowski because the kid wants so badly to win and hates to lose. That’s what fans want to see. If their favorite driver didn’t win or finish all that well, at least they can defend him if he appears to care about his finish and if driving that car is his primary focus.

But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Dale Jr. right now. I don’t know where he went off track, but he needs to figure out quickly what he really wants to do. This is not good for the sport at all. When the sport’s most popular driver gets out of the car and acts like he could care less what he spent the past three hours doing, it sends the wrong message to the millions of fans out there.

Dale Jr. should have several years of driving left in him, but judging by the way he’s racing and acting, he looks ready to hang it all up. And if he keeps this up, he might as well do just that.

Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it on NASCAR Race Hub on SPEED. He retired from driving with two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 12 NASCAR Nationwide and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, putting him in an elite group of drivers who have logged wins in all three of NASCAR’s premier divisions. In 478 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Spencer amassed 28 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes. He won back-to-back NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships in 1986 and 1987 on the heels of 15 victories, becoming the first driver ever to earn consecutive titles in the series. He earned the nickname “Mr. Excitement” for his flamboyant and aggressive driving style early in his racing career.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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