Deep Reads: Chasing ghosts with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 July 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
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Summary
In October 2023, Junior turned 49. That’s the same age his dad was in 2001, when, before the last turn on the last lap of the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s car bumped into Sterling Marlin’s, sending the iconic No. 3 careening into the wall at 160 mph.
Reporter Kent Babb was studying journalism in college in 2002 when his grandmother called. “They think he’s gone,” she said, referring to Babb’s father. His father’s heart had become enlarged, and while he was painting a house one day, it just stopped. His dad was 51.
Babb is 43 now, and since the day his dad died, there has been something unsettling to him about the idea of turning 51. This is common among people who’ve lost a parent young, or what is called an “off-time” death. Psychologists suggest these feelings of anxiety and fear, alongside a gradually intensifying urge to learn about your bloodline, are like a final stage of grief. And it’s one that most people, and in particular men, rarely talk about or explore.
Babb wanted to talk about it, preferably with someone who understood. And though he never took to NASCAR, Babb knew he and Junior belonged to the same unfortunate club. Babb wondered if he thought about it, if he dreaded turning 49, how he was coping as he approached the age his daddy was.
So, before his birthday in 2023, Babb asked if Earnhardt Jr. would be open to talking. He said yes.
Kent Babb reported, wrote and narrated the piece. Bishop Sand composed music and produced audio for the piece.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Kent Bab, a sports features writer for The Washington Post. |
| 0:05.4 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports weekend. |
| 0:10.5 | It's Saturday, July 26th. |
| 0:13.3 | I wrote this story as part of our Deep Read series, which showcases our best narrative journalism. |
| 0:20.1 | When I was 20 years old, my dad died unexpectedly. |
| 0:23.7 | I was in college, and really, ever since that day, I've thought about turning the same age |
| 0:30.2 | he was when he died. |
| 0:31.9 | It's not that I'm scared of that. |
| 0:33.5 | It's not that I think I'm going to die at that same age. |
| 0:35.8 | It's just weird. |
| 0:37.2 | I've learned it's pretty common among those of us who have lost a parent young or what's called an off-time death. But we don't talk about it, I think, for a variety of reasons, especially men, and even more especially men who are raised in the South. So about five years ago, I thought about who has dealt with something like this? |
| 0:55.5 | Who can I talk about it with? And the person who kept coming up in my mind was Dale Earnhardt, |
| 1:01.0 | Jr., the legendary race car driver who in 2001 lost his dad in a shocking crash at the Daytona 500. |
| 1:10.5 | Dale Sr. was 49 when that crash happened. |
| 1:12.6 | So when I reached out, Dale Jr. was about to turn 49. |
| 1:16.6 | And I guess I wanted to know, like, what feelings he was having, how he was dealing with this. |
| 1:21.6 | Also with me, like I knew I had one shot at this chance at personal closure. |
| 1:29.4 | I've got two kids of my own now. |
| 1:31.9 | They've started asking me about the grandpa. |
| 1:34.3 | And a lot of the questions I don't know the answers to. |
| 1:37.5 | I mean, I had a lot of new feelings as part of this reporting process |
| 1:41.5 | because I did some things that I've never done. |
... |
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