"Miss being that guy" - Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes feelings known about the fading 'identity' of a NASCAR driver post-retirement

Former NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently opened up about his feelings on retirement. He shared that he felt good about having retired at first but began to miss racing as time went on.

Earnhardt Jr., who raced full-time until 2017, now competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He started his NASCAR career in the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet for his late father's team in the late 1990s. He later moved to Hendrick Motorsports and drove the No. 88 car.

In a video posted by Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media on October 16, Earnhardt Jr. reflected on his experiences after leaving full-time racing.

"I had a weird deal where I was fricking awesome with being retired my first year. I was so glad to be out of the grind, but each year it's gotten worse," Earnhardt Jr. said.

"I really miss being that guy. That was my identity," Earnhardt Jr. added.

The 50-year-old won 26 races in the Cup Series over 19 years, including two Daytona 500 wins in 2004 and 2014. He also won the Xfinity Series championship twice in 1998 and 1999.

After retiring, Earnhardt Jr. worked as a commentator for NASCAR on NBC in 2018. He will move to Amazon and TNT for NASCAR's next TV contract in 2025.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Hendrick Motorsports' choice to not appeal Alex Bowman'a disqualification

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently shared his thoughts on Hendrick Motorsports deciding not to appeal Alex Bowman's disqualification. Bowman's No. 48 car was disqualified from the Charlotte Roval race last Sunday after failing a technical inspection for being underweight.

Earnhardt Jr. was surprised by the decision as Bowman is now out of the top eight playoff spots. He talked about this on his podcast, Dale Jr. Download and mentioned that experienced engineers usually can find such problems quickly.

"The team at one point yesterday was still as confused as the rest of us. That was a bit surprising because the teams are good enough, all the guys and the technical crew chief, engineers, if the car is light, they can probably look at the car and spend 20 minutes in the garage and go, ‘Yup, there it is. There’s the problem.’ And still hours later, they were like dumbfounded or just still unsure as to how this could happen," Earnhardt Jr. said.

He said it would be impossible to win the appeal if the team could not show that some parts were missing to explain the weight loss and added that Hendrick Motorsports must have felt they could not successfully challenge the decision.