Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gives Raw Account Of Returning To Daytona For The First Time After The Death Of His Father: “I Felt So Guilty”

Making something beautiful out of a horrific tragedy.

Last week, Prime Video premiered the first two episodes of their four-part series Earnhardt, which focuses on the life and legacy of the late, great Dale Earnhardt. Featuring interviews from Dale’s friends, family, and obviously his son, Dale Jr., the documentary also features never-before-seen footage of Dale during his racing career from both his personal and professional life.

It’s an incredibly interesting, and nuanced, look at Dale Earnhardt the race car driver, the man, the friend and the father, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.  and his sister Kelley played a huge part in the production of the series, in addition to being heavily featured in it, telling stories about their dad and memories that were both good and bad.

Of course, Dale was a seven-time Cup Series Champion, and is the most recognizable driver to ever do it. His place in pop culture is prevailing, and while he was a very real, flawed man, many did, and still do, view him as a larger-than-life, superhero of sorts. The dichotomy of his  legacy is fascinating, and in so many ways, he very much lived up to the Intimidator nickname he earned through his years racing.

But tragically, he was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, and NASCAR changed forever. The Intimidator managed to win an incredible 34 races at Daytona during his NASCAR career, including the 1998 Daytona 500. He was so good at these big tracks that it was always said that he could “see the air” moving around the cars, knowing exactly where to go to get the best aerodynamic advantage and move (or stay) up front.

His son, who was a very young and fresh driver at the time, Dale Jr., was in the race that killed his father, and he finished in second place. Obviously the track had an entirely new meaning to the Earnhardt family following that tragic day, and July 7, 2001 was the first NASCAR Cup Series race to be held at the track since Dale Earnhardt lost his life there just six months earlier. In a storybook finish, Jr. won that race, and it was 11 years to the day from when Junior’s dad had won his first race at Daytona.

It’s remains one of the most iconic moments in the sport’s history, which brought a sense of hope once again and excitement that Dale Jr. was able to come back and clearly overcome a lot to win. Over his career, Jr. won the Daytona 500 three times, and it’s impressive the way he’s been able to lean into racing there, rather than resent it and hate going there like would be very easy and natural to do.

And in the new Earnhardt documentary, Jr. opened up about the first time he went back to the track, to the spot where his father died in Turn 4, which was obviously an emotional and pivotal moment in his life. He was extremely candid in his retelling of the story, saying that he knew he needed to have some kind of moment, and he needed to do it alone because he had no idea what his reaction would be.

While it was a strange moment, Jr. admitted that there was a strange sense of “freedom” that he felt guilty for feeling after losing his dad. He knew he still had a hopefully long career ahead of him, which he did, and he promised himself he would honor his father, who loved Daytona and clearly did really well there, by following suit and never “holding anything against the track.”

He gave a very candid, and emotional, explanation of that entire experience returning to Daytona:

“I don’t know exactly where Daddy hit the wall. I don’t know exactly where his car came to rest, but I kind of came to that general area and I just got out. My buddies, they all kind of got out for a second, but I just walked off by myself and stood around a little bit and just looked around and just didn’t even really think. I just was, just there.

And I wanted, I think, really to see how I would feel. Would I get emotional? Would it be too much? Would it feel too heavy? Would I have a problem with it? I didn’t know. If I was going to have some kind of a reaction, I didn’t want to have it in front of everybody. And I thought about it in that moment, I was like, you know, my dad loved racing here. He loved Daytona and he loved winning there. He’s proud of it. And I just had this feeling that I shouldn’t be mad at it. You know, I shouldn’t dread going to Daytona.

But at the same time, there was this weird feeling… oh man. I almost hesitate to say this, because it isn’t going to make sense to anybody. But there was this really strange feeling of freedom. I felt guilty even about feeling that way at all. I felt so guilty. I mean, I’m still in the very beginning of my hopefully long career, and so I kind of decided then and there that I wasn’t going to hold anything against the track. And if anything, Daytona was maybe even more special because it’s where dad had passed away.”

I can’t even imagine what that moment was like, but Jr. certainly kept his promise to himself and made the winning both Earnhardt’s did on the track the center of the conversation about Daytona, rather than the tragedy that ensued almost 25 years ago. Of course, his emotions about everything related to his father, including his death, were incredibly complex, and probably still are to a certain extent, and Jr. always been open about how tough their relationship was a lot of the time, especially when he was a young child and teenager.

Ultimately, though, Jr. wanted to be just like his dad and make him proud, much like how Dale Sr. felt about his own racing legend father, Ralph, and that’s covered a lot in the documentary as well.

It’s impressive that Jr. is so willing to share his deepest thoughts about such a horrific moment in his life, but it’s crucial to telling the whole story and really poignant to listen to him talk about. You can watch the video here:

Forever in our hearts. The final two episodes of Earnhardt premiere May 29. pic.twitter.com/HdZfywHBF6

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) May 28, 2025

The entire film is so well done, and I can’t recommend watching it highly enough. The first two episodes are now streaming on Prime Video, and the last two will be out tomorrow.

The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gives Raw Account Of Returning To Daytona For The First Time After The Death Of His Father: “I Felt So Guilty” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.