Dale Earnhardt Jr. praises Andrew Luck's decision to walk away
Andrew Luck stunned football fans when he announced his decision to retire from the NFL on Saturday. It’s a move that’s been analyzed extensively in the days since, with some people appreciating why he called it quits while many reacted horribly to his personal choice.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in the group that’s applauding the now-former Indianapolis Colts quarterback for doing what’s right for him. Perhaps that’s at least partly because Earnhardt knows what it’s like to realize it’s time to retire, even if you could realistically go on competing.
“I thought it was great,” Earnhardt, a diehard Washington Redskins fan, told the media Friday at Darlington Raceway. “I don’t know Andrew. I don’t know what was going on in his mind and what he plans to do. Only he knows those things. But everybody has the right to do what they want to do to make themselves happy.”
After 18 full-time seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, Earnhardt retired at the end of the 2017 season. He could have continued racing, but he wanted to leave the race track on his own terms, especially after concussion symptoms sidelined him for the second half of the 2016 season.
Like football, racing has a high risk of head injuries — something Earnhardt has raised awareness of. He estimated he suffered 20 to 25 concussions throughout his career.
Despite retiring from full-time racing, Earnhardt is actually getting behind the wheel this weekend for a one-off race in the second-tier XFINITY Series for his own team, JR Motorsports. Part of a sponsorship deal with Hellmann’s mayonnaise, he also drove at Richmond Raceway in 2018 — he finished fourth — and said he’d like to race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2020 if the sponsor option is picked up.
Praising Luck’s retirement decision and putting it in a larger perspective, Dale Jr. continued:
“Twenty-nine years old, that’s pretty good for a football career. You’ve got to think of all the years of high school, two-a-days, practices, college; it’s bigger than just his NFL career. He’s played football a very long time in his life, and he’s at a point now where he wants to go do something different, I suppose.
“So I applaud it. I think it’s awesome. Some guys want to play longer, some guys don’t! You know? It’s just not for everybody to run it all the way to the very end and empty the tank. It’s not. Not everybody’s built the same way, and not everybody’s going to do the same thing. So I think it’s awesome that he wants to get away and enjoy other things in his life.”
This week, Earnhardt also provided an update on his own health following minor injuries from a plane crash he and his family were in two weeks ago near Bristol Motor Speedway. He said the swelling in his back has noticeably decreased, and he also told reporters Friday that he has been thoroughly examined by a neurologist and did not suffer a concussion.
He’ll compete in the XFINITY Series’ Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, NBC).