NASCAR Nationwide Series Rumors

Tonight may be last time Dale Jr. drives Dad’s No. 3

Autoracing1

UPDATE

Legions of Earnhardt Sr. fans salute Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 3 car by showing three fingers on Lap 3, which was led by you guessed it, Earnhardt Jr.,
Chris Graythen/Getty Images

A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, Well it has happened again in NASCAR – a PR coup just too good to be true. Many have said "the call" exists in NASCAR and everything happens for a reason in NASCAR and tonight proved once again in my mind that is indeed a fact. After claiming he will drive the Wrangler No. 3 this one and only time, NASCAR wasn't going to let this golden PR opportunity slip away and lo and behold, who led Lap 3? Who won the race? You guessed it, Dale Jr. who wasn't capable of winning a Nationwide race since 2006, but by the grace of God he was tonight. What a coincidence that he won at Daytona, the very track where his father was killed because he wasn't wearing a HANS Device because NASCAR refused to mandate them even though everyone told them they should and most race series already had. By the pure grace of God these things only happen in NASCAR. I feel so blessed to know that God truly does perform miracles, he does in NASCAR over and over and over. You can bet this car will someday be enshrined in the NASCAR museum a place full of NASCAR mythical happenings. I feel the need to pray. Mordichai Rosen, LA, California

Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.

07/02/10 If you want to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. drive a No. 3 Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway, you better get to the track tonight for the Subway Jalapeno 250. Earnhardt confirmed tonight's NASCAR Nationwide Series race — 100 laps over Daytona's 2.5-mile tri-oval — will be his last ride with that number on the side of a stock car he drives anywhere.

It's not just any race car.

Earnhardt is driving the No. 3 with in blue and yellow Wrangler colors, the sponsor who helped propel his father, Dale Earnhardt, into stock-car stardom in the 1980s.

"I'm just happy to do this one deal and hopefully everything goes good," Earnhardt said after the garage closed Thursday night.

"There ain't no probably to me running this number again. This is it. I don't need to do again. I don't have no reason to do it again. This is it."

Tonight's run is a tribute to his late father's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in May. Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time NASCAR champion, was in the first group of five inducted.

"I was about seven years old when dad drove that particular scheme," Earnhardt said. "I just always liked that scheme. I've always wanted to run it at least once. I might run the same scheme next year, only with the No. 88 on it, if Wrangler wants to do it again."