Dale Earnhardt Jr. is perfectly content to wait however long it takes to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Earnhardt Jr. is one of five first-time nominees on the ballot for the Class of 2021. He is one of 10 names listed on the Modern Era category of which two will be inducted into the HOF next January. Neil Bonnett, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde, Larry Phillips, Ricky Rudd, Kirk Shelmerdine and Mike Stefanik are the other nine on that ballot.
Earnhardt admitted when he heard his name among this year’s list of nominees it was an emotional moment.
“I felt that in my heart immediately,” Earnhardt Jr. said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive.” “I really think that if you have reasonable or moderate success you start to think about the what ifs and getting any kind of credit or acknowledgement for anything you do in your professional life. It’s such a great feeling. I certainly have let myself wonder about what that might feel like going into the Hall of Fame or being even nominated for the Hall of Fame.
“And I missed the mark on what I thought it would feel like it was much more emotional and touching just to be thought of and considered. So that was the initial feeling right out of the gate. And then I think about how great it felt to be in the group I was in. Looking at the guys on that on that list, you know, these are people that were my heroes and I was lucky to share the track with a couple of those guys.”
See Also: Hall of Fame Nominees Announced
While many believe Earnhardt Jr. is a favorite to go into the Hall in his first year on the ballot, he has mixed emotions on that possibility.
“It would be a double-edged sword I think because it’d be extremely emotional,” he said. “I would have such a great experience you know going through that. But on the other side of it, you know every guy that you look at belongs in there and I battle with that even every year when we have our ballot come out and then you have the guys that are nominated. Everybody deserves to go in there and everybody has an opinion on who deserves it today versus the next guy when, what’s the pecking order, you know?
“And so I battle with that too. At the end of last year when we celebrated our class from last year. I sat down and wrote a list on my phone of the guys that I thought belonged in there next. And my name wasn’t on it and this is a list I think of about 10 to 15 guys that belong in there and so I’ll be honest, you know, if I was voting I probably wouldn’t vote for myself.”
Earnhardt Jr. has always been a student of the sport’s history and now that he’s among those considered for one of NASCAR’s highest honors as a Hall of Fame member that hasn’t changed. While humbled by the consideration, Earnhardt Jr. remains firm in his belief there may be others more deserving of induction and his time will eventually come.
“We could go on and on and on so I would have a real hard time picking myself to be honest with you considering the other guys that have been there and that are on that ballot this year and we’re on it last year that aren’t on it anymore this year, you know, it’s a new process.”
