Since he burst onto the NASCAR scene, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has carved out a stellar career for himself, first with Dale Earnhardt Inc., the race team his late father started and since 2008, with Hendrick Motorsports. 

With Earnhardt Jr. set to retire from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the year, here are 12 defining moments in his career.

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In April 1998 at Texas Motor Speedway, Earnhardt scored the first win of his career in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.  He would go on that year to add six more race victories and win the first of two consecutive championships in the division.

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Texas Motor Speedway was also where in 2000 Earnhardt won his first Cup race in the No. 8 Budweiser-sponsored Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet. Earnhardt’s victory came in just his 12^th Cup start.

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When Charlotte Motor Speedway president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler picked Junior to win the NASCAR All-Star Race, Dale Earnhardt was furious, saying Wheeler put too much un-needed pressure on his son. But danged if Junior didn’t go out and win anyway.

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Just two weeks before Dale Earnhardt’s death in a last-lap crash in the Daytona 500, Earnhardt and Earnhardt Jr. co-drove a Corvette with sports-car racers Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins to a fourth-place overall finish in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

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Dale Earnhardt Inc. drivers Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. swept the top two positions in the 2001 Daytona 500, but as they were coming to take the checkered flag, Dale Earnhardt was killed in a last-lap, last-turn crash of his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

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Less than five months after his father died, Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored a hugely emotional win in the July Daytona race, where he and teammate Michael Waltrip tearfully hugged it out in the infield grass afterward.

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During warm-up for an American Le Mans Series race at Sonoma Raceway in 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a minor crash in his Corvette, only to have the cockpit burst into flames as he struggled to get out. Earnhardt said later that he felt the presence of his father as he fought to bail out of the burning car. “I think he had a lot to do with me getting out of the car,” Earnhardt said.

Three years to the day after his father’s untimely death, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500 for the first time.  Earnhardt passed Tony Stewart on Lap 181 of 200 and held on the rest of the way to win.

In the spring of 2007, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made the surprising announcement that he was leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc., the only NASCAR team he’d ever driven for, at the end of the year. When asked if Earnhardt would be joining Hendrick Motorsports, team owner Rick Hendrick famously said, “There’s no room at the inn.” But Hendrick soon parted ways with Kyle Busch, allowing Earnhardt to join the powerhouse team.

In 2010, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the July Daytona race in what is now the NASCAR XFINITY Series. And he did it in the No. 3 Chevrolet, carrying blue-and-yellow Wrangler colors. It was an enormously popular victory, but Earnhardt said he’d never race the No. 3 again.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended a 143-race winless streak at Michigan International Speedway dating all the way back to 2008. Earnhardt won the race in a special Batman-themed paint scheme from the film, “The Dark Knight Rises.”

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. survived the longest rain delay in Daytona 500 history and a spate of accidents to score a hugely popular and emotional win at Daytona International Speedway. Earnhardt dominated the final one-third of the race to score his second Daytona 500 victory and win for the first time in 55 races.

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