Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to make one thing clear: His wife Amy did not play a role in his decision to retire.
In the former NASCAR driver’s brand-new book, Racing to the Finish: My Story, Earnhardt Jr., 44, says that Amy — who he married in a New Year’s Eve 2016 wedding — wasn’t the reason he ended his career in 2017.
“As my time out of the racecar was extended, and as rumors about my retirement started getting louder, a lot of people spoke up. They had a very hard time dealing with it all,” Earnhardt Jr. writes of both fans and people in his inner circle. He continues, “They looked for something or someone to blame.”
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He continues, addressing “anyone who tried — and might still try — to blame Amy.”
Earnhardt Jr. recalls, “Do you want to know who was setting the alarm every morning and dragging my miserable butt out of bed to do my exercises? Amy. You want to know who set up my gym in our garage and then went in there every day, putting me through my paces like a personal trainer-turned-drill-sergeant for two or three hours a day? Amy.”
Earnhardt Jr. and Amy first started dating in 2009 and welcomed daughter Isla Rose in April of this year.
The athlete announced his retirement from NASCAR in 2017 after suffering his second concussion in four years in 2016, The New York Times reported.
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He notes in the book that Amy attended every doctor’s appointment with him as he recovered from the most recent head injury, the scary symptoms of which he details in the book through journal entries.
Earnhardt Jr. says, “You want to know how many times she said, ‘Dale, I think you need to quit driving racecars’? Zero. Not once. We had conversations about whether or not I should keep driving, but when we did they were started by me.”
“Amy knew from the very beginning that I loved racing,” he concludes in Racing to the Finish: My Story. “She was never going to be the person to get in the way of that, even during the times that racing didn’t love me back.”
Racing to the Finish: My Story is available for purchase now.