“My symptoms got too severe to keep up the charade and I was forced to get help”- When Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained his retirement from NASCAR

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a successful Cup Series campaign with DEI and Hendrick Motorsports. The NASCAR Hall of Famer entered his rookie premier-level season in 2000 and began dominating shortly after. He claimed his first win at the Texas Motor Speedway, his seventh race as a full-time driver. The driver ended his career with 26 Cup wins.

However, Junior's desire to extend his NASCAR campaign beyond the 2017 season began fading as the ill effects of concussion took a toll on his body's functioning. Nearly a year after his retirement, Dale Jr., in an opinion penned through the NY Times, explained what caused him to take the career-ending call.

"During my two decades behind the wheel as a full-time NASCAR driver, I suffered more than a dozen concussions. For a long time, I managed to keep most of them a secret, but then my symptoms got too severe to keep up the charade and I was forced to get help. My battle with head injuries has given me a wealth of firsthand knowledge of the causes, symptoms, and types of concussions, and their treatments," Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrote.

Throughout his illustrious motorsports career, the legendary driver has succumbed to countless wrecks in the race. This includes a crash at the Sonoma Raceway during a sports car event warm-up that ignited a fire in Dale Jr.'s car, leaving burns on the driver, a 2007 crash with Kyle Busch, and the 1998 Daytona 300 horror, to name a few.

Junior noted he discovered his vestibular system had been damaged, a week after his Chevy went airborne and nosedived on the asphalt during the 1998 Daytona 300. Due to the tampered brain wiring, he felt as if the car in the garage, which was motionless, rolled a bit.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. opined that racers get all sorts of injuries and fractures. But he outlined that his retirement stemmed from the cascading effects of concussion, not fractures.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from NASCAR with numerous triumphs and earned accolades after parting ways as well

Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Sr., followed in his father's footsteps and became one of NASCAR's top contending drivers. He began his NASCAR journey in the National Series, entering as a rookie in 1998. Not only did the 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner clinch the title in his first full-time season but continued his dominance for a second consecutive title.

In 2000, he got promoted to the Cup Series and didn't disappoint the team owners. Of his 26 Cup wins, he claimed two Daytona 500 victories and four back-to-back wins at the Talladega Superspeedway from 2001 to 2003. Junior collected 24 Xfinity wins, from which 13 came during his two full-time seasons.

Earnhardt Jr.'s achievements and dominant NASCAR stats paved the way for his induction into the 1999 Xfinity Series' Most Popular Driver, the 2017 Bill France Award of Excellence, the 2017 Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame, and NASCAR Hall of Fame 2021.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was included in NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers list in 2023 and is one 'Most Popular Driver Award' shy of Bill Elliott's 16, which remains undisputed to date.