Earnhardt Jr. was born and raised in Kannapolis, North Carolina. His mother, Brenda Lorraine Jackson, and father divorced shortly after his birth; after a fire destroyed the family home when he was six, his mother gave up custody to Dale Earnhardt Sr. He was sent to Oak Ridge Military Academy at age twelve; his older sister, Kelley, quit high school to join him. He graduated from Mooresville High School in 1992.
He began racing at the late age of 17 in the Street Stock division at Concord, North Carolina's Motorsport Park, co-owning a 1979 Monte Carlo with his half-brother Kerry. By nineteen he had moved to the Late Model Stock Car Division, racing a No. 3 Buick at the Myrtle Beach Speedway and the East Carolina Motor Speedway in Robersonville, North Carolina, where he took the pole for the Greenville Merchants 300 on October 28, 1994. He worked as a mechanic at his father's dealership while attending Mitchell Community College, earning an associate degree in automotive technology.
After nine Busch Series starts between 1996 and 1997, Earnhardt Jr. drove full-time for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 1998. He won consecutive NASCAR Busch Series championships in 1998 and 1999, narrowly edging Matt Kenseth both years. In 1998, he made his first Winston Cup start at the exhibition race at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. He also made five Cup starts in the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet for DEI in 1999, with his best result a tenth-place finish at Richmond in the fall.
The 2000 season was Earnhardt Jr.'s breakout year. He contested the Raybestos NASCAR Rookie of the Year Award against Matt Kenseth. His first win came in the DirecTV 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in his twelfth start — breaking his father's record for fewest starts to a first win in the modern era. He also won at Richmond International Raceway and became the first rookie to win The Winston. He and his father and half-brother Kerry raced together in the Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway, only the second time a father had raced against two sons in Cup history. He ended the season with two wins, three top-fives, five top-tens, and two poles.
The 2001 Daytona 500 concluded with Earnhardt Jr. finishing second to DEI teammate Michael Waltrip, while his father crashed fatally on the final lap's turn 4 after contact from Sterling Marlin. Earnhardt Sr. was pronounced dead at 5:16 pm from a basilar skull fracture. Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip both publicly asked fans to stop blaming Marlin; NASCAR and local police cleared Marlin of any wrongdoing.
Returning to Daytona International Speedway for the Pepsi 400 later that year, Earnhardt Jr. dominated, leading 115 of 160 laps and winning from sixth place on the final restart. He won the MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 at Dover — the first Cup race after the September 11 attacks — performing a Polish victory lap while holding a large American flag out the window. He also won the EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, earning a Winston No Bull 5 million-dollar bonus, though he was docked 25 points for a failed post-race inspection. DEI swept three of the four restrictor plate races that season.
In 2002, Earnhardt Jr. suffered a concussion from a head-on wall collision at the California race in April — an injury he did not publicly acknowledge until mid-September. He recovered to sweep both Talladega races that year, leading 133 of 188 laps in the spring race alone.
In 2003, he won a record fourth consecutive race at Talladega Superspeedway after surviving a 27-car crash on lap four. The win was controversial; NASCAR ruled that Matt Kenseth had forced him below the yellow line. He won again at Phoenix and finished a career-best third in points.
The 2004 season brought his first Daytona 500 victory — exactly six years after his father's only Daytona 500 win. He also won his Gatorade Duel and the accompanying Busch Series race during Speedweeks. On July 18, 2004, he crashed a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R during practice for the American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway; the car caught fire and he suffered second and third-degree burns on his neck, chin, and legs. While he recovered, Martin Truex Jr. relieved him at New Hampshire and DEI teammate John Andretti at Pocono. He became the first driver to sweep a weekend at Bristol by winning both the Busch and Nextel Cup races. Despite a career-high six wins at Daytona, Atlanta, Richmond, Bristol, Talladega, and Phoenix, a 25-point penalty for using obscene language on television, combined with two consecutive DNFs in the Chase, dropped him to fifth in the NEXTEL Cup Chase standings.
In 2006, Earnhardt drove a vintage Budweiser car at Michigan on Father's Day to honour both his grandfather (Ralph Earnhardt) and his father. On August 5, 2007, he earned his first pole position since 2002 at Pocono Raceway, finishing second in that race after spinning out.
On May 10, 2007, Earnhardt announced he would leave DEI after the season. On June 13, 2007, he confirmed a five-year contract with Hendrick Motorsports to drive the No. 88, replacing Kyle Busch. He was unable to take the familiar No. 8 with him, and his primary sponsor Budweiser also did not follow. His stepmother Teresa Earnhardt declined to release the number. The No. 88, according to NASCAR archives, had previously been driven by his paternal grandfather Ralph Earnhardt in 1957.
Earnhardt started his Hendrick tenure by winning the Budweiser Shootout, leading 47 of 70 laps — a Shootout record. He also won his Gatorade Duel. He broke a 76-race winless streak at Michigan in 2008 by stretching fuel on the final lap under caution. He finished the 2008 season twelfth in points, 557 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson.
In 2009, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. was released on May 28; Lance McGrew replaced him starting at the June race at Pocono. Earnhardt ended 2009 winless, finishing a career-low 25th in points.
In 2010, he led the final two laps of the Daytona 500 from tenth but finished second behind Jamie McMurray. On July 2, he won the Nationwide Series' Subway Jalapeño 250 at Daytona driving a blue-and-yellow No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet as tribute to his father.
At the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan, Earnhardt led 95 laps and won, snapping a 143-race winless streak — nearly four years to the day after his last Cup win. He went on to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. In October, he suffered a concussion from a crash at Talladega on October 7, plus a prior concussion at a Kansas Speedway test on August 29, causing him to miss the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte and the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas — ending a streak of 461 consecutive Cup starts. Regan Smith substituted in those two races. He closed the season twelfth in points. He won the Most Popular Driver Award for the tenth consecutive year, tying Bill Elliott's streak.
In 2013, Earnhardt set a new qualifying speed record at Kentucky Speedway with a lap time of 29.406 seconds (183.636 mph). He made three consecutive Chase appearances for the first time in his career and finished fifth in points — his best season since 2004 — with two poles, ten top-fives, and 22 top-tens. On December 5, 2013, he won the Most Popular Driver Award for the eleventh consecutive year, breaking Bill Elliott's record of ten straight.
The 2014 season produced his second Daytona 500 win: starting ninth, he took the lead with 70 laps remaining and led 54 of the last 70, holding off Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski. He also won at Pocono in the summer race, slipping past Brad Keselowski on the final restart, and at Pocono again in the fall — sweeping both Pocono races for the first time since Denny Hamlin in 2006. Later that year, he won at Martinsville for his first career victory at the track. He ended 2014 with four wins, twelve top-fives, and twenty top-tens, finishing eighth in the standings.
At Talladega in 2015, Earnhardt Jr. won for the sixth time at the track — tying teammate Jeff Gordon for most wins among active drivers at Talladega — and for the first time since October 2004. He also won at Daytona in the summer Coke Zero 400, leading 97 laps. A third win came at Phoenix when rain curtailed the race. He made the Chase for the eighth time in his career and won the Most Popular Driver Award for the thirteenth consecutive year.
In July 2016, Earnhardt was diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms and missed the second half of the season. Alex Bowman replaced him at the New Hampshire 301 and Jeff Gordon at the Brickyard 400 and Pennsylvania 400, with Gordon continuing through the season finale. He was medically cleared on December 8, 2016. Despite missing the second half of the year, he won his fourteenth consecutive Most Popular Driver Award. He announced that after his death his brain would be donated for concussion research.
Earnhardt started 2017 Daytona 500 from second but was wrecked while leading mid-race, finishing 37th. He failed to make the Playoffs in his final year. In his last restrictor plate race at Talladega, he started on the pole and finished seventh. His final Cup start ended in 25th place. He finished 21st in the points standings and won his fifteenth consecutive Most Popular Driver Award — a NASCAR record, though second all-time to Bill Elliott's sixteen total awards.
After retirement, Earnhardt competed sporadically in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports. In 2018 at Richmond, he led 96 of 250 laps and finished fourth. In 2019 at Darlington, driving a No. 8 designed after his father's 1975 Cup car, he finished fifth. At the 2020 Daytona 500 he served as Honorary Starter. In 2022 at Talladega, he won his debut in the iRacing MOONCAR series, flipping across the start/finish line in a vintage 1987-spec stock car. In June 2025, he served as interim crew chief for JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch at a Pocono Xfinity race following a one-race suspension of regular crew chief Mardy Lindley; Zilisch won, giving Earnhardt his first crew-chief victory.
Earnhardt co-founded JR Motorsports with his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller. The team won its first NASCAR national championship in 2014 when Chase Elliott drove the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts car to the NASCAR Nationwide Series title. The Chance 2 Motorsports entity he co-founded with his stepmother Teresa produced Martin Truex Jr. Busch Series championships in 2004 and 2005 before folding in 2006.
In January 2023, a consortium including Earnhardt's DEJ Management, Jeff Burton Autosports, Kevin Harvick Incorporated, and Trackhouse Racing Team purchased the CARS Tour.
Earnhardt joined the NASCAR on NBC broadcasting team as a color commentator for the 2018 season, debuting on NBCSN's NASCAR America on March 12, 2018, alongside Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton, and his former crew chief Steve Letarte. At the 2018 Overton's 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, he coined his catchphrase "Slide job!" On February 29, 2024, it was reported he would leave NBC for Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports, beginning with the 2025 season. He joined iRacing as executive director in November 2020, and in 2022 the trophy for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series was renamed in his honour.
Earnhardt announced his engagement to Amy Reimann on June 17, 2015. They married on New Year's Eve 2016 at Richard Childress' Childress Vineyards in Lexington, North Carolina. Their daughter Isla Rose was born April 30, 2018, and their second daughter, Nicole Loraine, was born October 12, 2020. On August 15, 2019, a Cessna Citation Latitude jet carrying Earnhardt, Amy, Isla Rose, and their dog caught fire after a bounced landing at Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee; none were seriously injured. Earnhardt's mother, Brenda Jackson, died on April 22, 2019, at age 65 after battling cancer; she had worked as an accounting specialist for JR Motorsports since 2004. He is a supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and, as of March 2018, had granted over 250 wishes.
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