"Definitely left something on the table" - Dale Earnhardt Jr. expresses regret over not living up to his championship-worthy season in 2004

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently opened up on his 2004 season in the NASCAR Cup Series. Despite becoming a Hall of Famer after retirement, he regretted not having the right mindset for the championship, which he never won in his Cup career.

During a recent episode of his podcast show, the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt talked about Martin Truex Jr. and his mindset in his final season in the sport. It led to his wife Amy Earnhardt claiming that Truex Jr. would look back and wish he had 'played a little harder' in his final season, because such moments don't come back.

This prompted Dale Earnhardt Jr. to express that he would "totally go back" and do a lot of things, even entire seasons, differently.

"I would love to have '04 back. '04 was the year I feel like I had the best team, there was '04 and I think 2014 where the two best...we had enough team and car performance to absolutely win a championship," Earnhardt said. [42:16]

Following this, his co-host Andrew Kurland asked him about his potential in the 2004 season. Earnhardt claimed that while he won several races that year, he didn't realize what he could've achieved.

"We won 6 races but I wasn't smart, mature enough to really understand, if I had maybe done a little differently, I never really in that whole season went, 'Man, I got a chance to win a championship.' I was just racing to win. That's a tough year, great year, one of my proudest moments of my career, being able to win 6-7 races in a year, wow, I didn't know people could do that. But definitely left something on the table," he said.

He wished he had a better mindset back then, instead of focusing on partying with his friends on weekdays.

"Had I been more Jimmie Johnson-esque like hammer down! Just race, race, race everyday, might've been a different result, who knows," he added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 2004 NASCAR Cup season

In 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the #8 car with DEI. It turned out to be one of the best seasons of his entire Cup career. His season began with the win at the Daytona 500, the first win of his career.

Junior followed it up with another at Atlanta just two weeks later. His next win came 7 weeks later at Richmond. However, in between his second and third win of the year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. registered three top 5 finishes in a row at Texas, Martinsville, and Talladega.

While it took 7 weeks between Atlanta and Richmond for him to win a race, his fourth win of the year came much later: in August at Bristol.

After that, the #8 driver won at Talladega, following it up with his final win of the season at Phoenix.

Overall, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had 6 wins, 10 finishes inside the top 5, and 6 inside the top 10 in 2004, which meant he finished fifth on points, -138 behind the 2004 champion, Kurt Busch.