Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s mom on driver's future: 'Why risk it when you don't need to?'
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — With all due respect to others who played a role in the soon-to-conclude auto racing journey of Dale Earnhardt Jr., no one has been more important than Brenda Jackson.
She gave him life.
Jackson, Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s second wife, delivered his third child, Dale Jr., on Oct. 10, 1974.
“I can remember when he was born,” Jackson told USA TODAY Sports. “I can remember when the doctor said, ‘You have a healthy boy.’ I just cried. I didn’t want to go back out there if it wasn’t a boy.”
Earnhardt Sr. had proclaimed before Junior’s birth that the baby his wife was carrying was a boy and that he would be named Dale Jr., Jackson said.
“I didn’t have a choice in that,” she said. “From the moment I found out I was expecting, Dale Senior was adamant it was a boy. And there was no thinking about names. He was going to be a boy, and that was the name.”
Two years earlier, the Earnhardts had welcomed a daughter, Kelley, who now is co-owner and vice president of JR Motorsports, Earnhardt Jr.'s Xfinity Series team.
Earnhardt Sr. and Jackson, daughter of race car builder Robert Gee, divorced several years after Earnhardt Jr.'s birth. She later married Willie Jackson and moved to Chesapeake, Va.
Earnhardt Jr. and his mother have remained close over the years. She moved to the Charlotte area in 2000 and works in accounting at JR Motorsports.
'Why risk it when you don't need to?'
Jackson found out in early April – weeks before the official announcement – that this would be her son's 18th and final season in NASCAR's Cup Series.
“He called me on my way home and asked if I could stop by his house for a minute,” she said. “I’m thinking, 'Oh, gosh, what have I done wrong?' because I’m always sticking my foot in my mouth. I had no idea what he wanted.
“He told me he had decided this was going to be his last year and asked me how I felt about it. I told him I was fine with it.
"After watching what he went through last year (battling concussions and after-effects), I wouldn’t even have started this year.
“You watch your 42-year-old son, and he can’t even walk a straight line. He gets on a bicycle, and he can’t keep his balance. He can’t drive a car, although he drives one for a living.”
NASCAR's 14-time most popular driver missed half of last season after suffering a concussion in a June race at Michigan International Speedway. It was at least the fourth documented concussion of his career.
Earnhardt Jr.’s decision to make this season his last clearly was correct, Jackson said.
“Because of his history of having concussions, one more could be catastrophic,” she said. “He’s worked too hard. He doesn’t have to do it any more, so go enjoy life."
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He plans to do just that. He married Amy Reimann on New Year's Eve 2016, 18 months after he popped the question at a church his ancestors attended in Germany. They honeymooned in Hawaii.
"He and Amy (his wife) want to be able to do other things and hopefully have a family. There’s so much out there for him to enjoy and experience. Why risk it when you don’t need to?”
Jackson admitted she feared for Earnhardt Jr.’s future during his recovery from concussions. He has said he often doubted he would be able to race again because of his questionable physical condition.
“To have watched him go through what he went through last year, as a parent I was very scared,” she said. “In my mind, he’s done everything he wanted to do, so let’s stop and smell the roses.”
'I just wish Dale was here to see it all'
The Earnhardt family dynamic changed when Dale Earnhardt Sr. married Teresa Houston, his third wife, but Jackson said she never doubted that she would play significant roles in her children’s lives.
“I certainly put every bit of myself into trying to be around,” she said. “Dale and Teresa got married. It wasn’t the easiest time. The kids had gone to live with Dale because it was in their best interest at the time. I was five hours away, but I came back here every weekend I could.”
After Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500, Jackson was more of a presence in Earnhardt Jr.'s life.
“More than ever, I felt like the kids needed me,” she said. “I was so glad to do whatever I could. They certainly had an adjustment. But everything’s good. I just wish Dale was here to see it all and to enjoy his grandkids.”
Jackson rarely attends races but said she watches every event on television, “and I run every lap just like he runs.”
She said she hasn’t decided if she will attend his final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 19.
“I have mixed emotions about that,” she said. “I know if I don’t go I’ll wish I had, but I also know in going that I’m probably not going to see him with all that will be going on.
"Do I want to cry there or cry in my own living room where I can see everything?”
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