Dale Earnhardt Jr., 42, will retire from the NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the 2017 season, according to a tweet Tuesday morning from Hendrick Motorsports.
There have been a myriad of stories the past two weeks indicating Earnhardt had been thinking retirement on the heels of Jeff Gordon (2015) and Tony Stewart (2016).
He had a long layoff last year after suffering another concussion. He suffered two concussions in a six-week period in 2012 and sat out two races. Earnhardt announced he had donated his brain for study, including the dread effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy – a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head trauma.
Earnhardt was voted the most popular driver 14 times by NASCAR fans since his racing career began in 1999. He has 603 career starts and 26 wins on the circuit. He won the Daytona 500 in 2004 and 2014.
His final race in the NASCAR Cup Series will be Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.