Jeffrey Earnhardt's Daytona 500 week has special meaning

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — If you ask NASCAR drivers what race means the most to them, chances are they will say the Daytona 500.

The stock car version of the Super Bowl is the crown jewel of the 36-race slate and comes up first on the calendar.

Jeffrey Earnhardt is no different. But for so many other reasons.

Earnhardt, 27, will attempt to make his first start in a race he has longed to run for many years but that also has brought his family so much heartache.

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“Each day it gets closer, the more stress I feel, the more pressure I feel,” Earnhardt said during Daytona 500 media day Wednesday. He will be in Thursday's Can-Am Duels, which set the lineup for the race. “You watch all these clips of how hard my grandpa fought to win a Daytona 500 and how close he was. … Everything that could go wrong went wrong (until his win).”

“It probably makes racing here more meaningful to me because of everything that’s happened, but he loved superspeedway racing, he loved this track. He loved this sport.”

The legacy of Earnhardt’s grandfather, Dale Earnhardt Sr., seems to start and end here.

Earnhardt Sr. was an ace at restrictor-plate tracks. But he won the Daytona 500 just once, in 1998, in 23 starts. Three years later, he was killed when his car struck the Turn 4 wall on the final lap.

Then there’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has won here twice and will start on the front row Sunday in his return to the sport after missing half of last season with a concussion.

Jeffrey, whose father and former driver Kerry cautioned him about joining the family business – ‘’He didn’t want me to think it’s all a street paved with gold” – made 22 starts in NASCAR’s Cup Series last season. He is hoping for more with Circle Sport – The Motorsports Group if sponsorship comes through. He’s been working during the offseason to help make that happen.

As for his uncle’s offseason, which included a New Year’s Eve wedding?

“It was cool to see him settle down. I didn’t think I’d ever see the day that a woman would settle him down. He found a good one. Amy’s an awesome lady.”