North Wilkesboro is back, and we just had another race on the iconic track. Of course, Dale Earnhardt Jr. being a big part of the track’s restoration was also in the race. And things got quite emotional.

Dale Jr. made a pretty emotional admission about racing on the track.

Junior said, “I almost wanted to cry. It was so emotional. I stall can’t believe this happened, man. This place was forgotten. Anyone on the planet was ready to argue, ‘They ain’t bringing it back, it ain’t never coming back.’ There was a lot of people that believed in it, but not enough. But enough switched got flipped, and enough fortunate things happened and here we are.”

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Earnhardt Jr. was clearly in shock and found it all surreal, adding, “I still don’t believe it. Boy, imma tell you, that moment, getting ready to climb in that car, looking around seeing all those people getting ready, they were anticipating the race. The energy is so amazing.”

For a moment, he was struck hard by nostalgia, “It felt exactly like being here in 1990”, “It felt like there’s a Cup race just about to pop off with Rick Rudd and Dad and Bodine and Darrell and all those guys.”

North Wilkesboro is very special to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

In an exclusive interview with WX12 news, Dale Jr. opened up about how it felt to come back to this track.

“I came to North Wilkesboro so many times as a kid,” said Junior, as he reminisced about his past racing with his father in the SunDrop Chevy. Fortunately, he was able to return to the track with the same sponsor, again!

He added, “To put this program together with Sun Drop, who sponsored my late model in ’93, I wouldn’t want it any other way. They were with my dad for years and one of my first sponsors.”

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It’s great to see him return to the track after so long!