Junior Repeats History as Tribute to His Dad

You just couldn't peel yourself away from the set. A green-white-checkered finish might keep him from winning. One thing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. requested was a nice push from Joey Logano...and he got it.

That push from the 20 car piloted by Logano was all Junior needed to start out in front and capture the Subway Jalapeno 250 last evening. And it was historic in many ways.

First was the number on Junior's car...it was the number his father made famous. The #3. That #3 was once again in Victory Lane at Daytona. A sight Dale Earnhardt fans had seen on many occasions. This time was a little different. A collaborative effort by JR Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and DEI through Teresa Earnhardt made happen. That in itself was an accomplishment.

It was the paint scheme and sponsor. Wrangler had sponsored Dale Sr. and now Dale Jr. But it just wasn't any old paint scheme. It was Junior's favorite colors that his daddy featured when he held the Wrangler sponsorship. It was the yellow and blue.

It was the tone in Andy Petree's voice as Junior won. Petree spent significant time around Dale Sr. He helped captain the last two championships that Dale Sr. would win before attempting to have a go at his own racing team. It was one thing, just one thing Petree said. "I've got chills." That's all that needed to be said. Period. If you watched and didn't feel those chills, well, I feel sorry for you. This was in the class of fairy tale endings.

It was once again seeing Junior smile. He knew that this victory was important and he made no mistake on who wanted it most.

"Just all his fans. He had so many great fans. Not just mine. This is for his fans. Hopefully, they enjoyed this."

The fans have been the one constant for Junior. With so many ups and downs over the past couple of seasons, this one moment not only brought back memories, it brought back a desire from Junior and he wasn't shy about the intended goal.

"I was so worried that I wasn't going to win," Earnhardt said in Victory Lane. "Nothing but a win was good enough. It's emotional, I'm proud of myself, I'm proud of what I've done with this group. It was trying emotionally to put it together."

But overlook all that for a moment. Tony Eury Jr. summed it all up the best.

"We lost everything here," Eury said softly. "To come back with that number and do this, it means everything."

No one said it any better. Short and simple.

We'll never see the #3 again. Junior has no plans on doing it again. When Childress was asked about that same topic, he stated there were no plans to do it again.

And that's okay. The track Dale Sr. loved the most was won by the car his son loved the most.

Yes, Dale Sr. is proud.