Jeffrey Earnhardt makes Cup debut, marking fourth Earnhardt generation
RICHMOND, Va.—The name precedes you.
Two decades ago, when they were driving around the wilds of North Carolina running late-model races, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley were targets at every track they visited. Other drivers, assuming Dale and Kelley had received all the financial and technological benefits of their famous father, would do their best to beat, or beat down, the young Earnhardts. But both persisted; Kelley made a name for herself behind a desk, and Junior … well, you know what’s happened since to him.
So they, like few others in NASCAR, can understand what Jeffrey Earnhardt has gone through in his ascent through the NASCAR ranks, an ascent that reached another plateau Saturday night as Jeffrey made his Sprint Cup debut in the Federated Auto Parts 400 in Richmond. Earnhardt, the son of Dale Senior’s oldest son Kerry, has fought his way upward, in part literally—he even had a brief stint as an MMA fighter.
Earnhardt, 26, qualified the No. 32 Go Green Racing Ford Fusion (yes, an Earnhardt in a Ford) on time, and started 42nd. He has run 66 Xfinity Series races in his career, and indicated that his lone goal in this particular race was to finish the race. He has another Cup race lined up for New Hampshire, but no rides beyond that.
“I’m just thankful to have this opportunity,’’ Earnhardt told NBC Sports. “I’ve got a long, long way to go to learn these cars.’’
This marks the first time in a decade that two Earnhardts have run in a race together, since October 2005 when Junior and Jeffrey’s father Kerry ran the October 2005 Talladega race together. Jeffrey Earnhardt is the first fourth-generation NASCAR driver since Adam Petty made his Cup-level debut in 2000.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION (Harper, February 2016). Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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