The Earnhardt name never left NASCAR. Dale Jr.'s Daytona 500 quest proves it.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Justin Allgaier remembers last year’s catharsis.

Everyone does.

It was the Thursday before the 2025 Daytona 500. Allgaier, the driver of the No. 40 car, had just steered his car successfully through the Duels and had qualified for the Great American Race. There was figurative pandemonium. There were literal fireworks. Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of JR Motorsports, gave Allgaier a bear hug on pit road — his happiness was a result of putting the Earnhardt name back in the Cup Series for the first time since Dale Jr. stopped racing in 2017.

Allgaier remembers all this well.

He also recalls something else:

That it almost didn’t happen.

After all, the day before Thursday’s catharsis, there was Wednesday’s suffering. Wednesday was single-car Cup qualifying — a chance for two Open cars to lock down their spots in NASCAR’s biggest race. That was the plan: qualify on Wednesday, put the Earnhardt name in its rightful place and have a stress-free Thursday and Sunday.

And … that’s not what went down.

“Wednesday night, when qualifying ended, that valley was deeper than anything I could ever remember,” Allgaier said. “Not only did we not qualify for the event, we were very underwhelming. And we missed our target by a lot. And that was very difficult to understand and to deal with.”

Allgaier added: “I was caught up in the same thing that everybody else was: that it would just be easy. I don’t mean that as any negative toward any other Cup team, or any other Cup driver. I just felt like everybody expected it. And then when it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go — what happened?

“It made me realize the gravity of this event, and just how difficult it is, how close you are to failure at any given moment.”

The moment had such gravity, not just because it was the Daytona 500, not just because it was a Cup race. The gravity stemmed from the fact that this moment represented a rare chance for the Earnhardt name to return to the NASCAR Cup Series in a meaningful way — and at the most meaningful place.

And on Wednesday, in the infield of Daytona International Speedway, Allgaier expressed that he knows the gravity now.

So, too, does the rest of the sport.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a Cup Series owner for a second time

Sunday will mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Dale Earnhardt. The sport’s villain and titan all in one died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. The anniversary was a talking point all of Wednesday — as drivers remember what he meant, and still means, to today’s sport.

But just as there’s discussion of the loss of Dale Sr. a quarter-century ago, there is also plenty of talk about the Earnhardt name in the Cup Series again. Dale Jr. and his sister, Kelley, are making that so — as the team they own, JR Motorsports, again attempts to qualify for the Daytona 500.

Dale Sr. and Dale Jr., once again, are in the spotlight. One for how he left the sport, one for how he’s trying to bring the name back.

Is there anything special to that symmetry?

Ask that to Chase Elliott, the sport’s most popular driver and one who came up via JR Motorsports, and he’ll say no. And his reasoning is powerful.

“I don’t feel like the Earnhardt name has ever left,” Elliott said. “Dale has continued to have a great stance in the sport. We see him all the time. We hear from him all the time. It’s not like they left and are just now coming back. To me, the Earnhardt name is respected so much that I don’t feel that way. I don’t feel like it’s ever gone away.”

Elliott wasn’t the only driver to bring up Earnhardt, either. Bubba Wallace did. He said that whenever “we have a major wreck, and drivers are able to climb out and be OK, it’s thanks to Dale,” because of all the safety enhancements NASCAR made after losing Earnhardt.

Denny Hamlin did, too. The 45-year-old driver said that he is looking forward to watching the Fox-produced documentary about the tragedy called “We’ve Lost Dale Earnhardt: 25 Years Later,” which premieres Thursday night on FS1.

“It’s been an incredible amount of time, but I remember it like it was yesterday,” Hamlin said. “He had such a big prominent role, was such an important figure for the sport. And we never found that guy besides his son to be able to take our sport to the next level.”

A new mentality going into second Daytona 500

Allgaeir ultimately finished ninth in the 2025 Daytona 500. That marked another high that didn’t seem possible after the difficult start to the week. The Earnhardts have hinted aloud their desires to enter the Cup Series full-time — buying a charter and getting into NASCAR’s premier series — but have yet to make the move.

But getting into the race Sunday is their focus now.

And you can tell by how Allgaier is approaching it — not taking anything for granted.

“Last year, we had a lot more calmness going into qualifying than what we should’ve,” Allgaier said. “We all thought we were in a little bit better position and thought we were a little bit smarter, a little bit more prepared, a little bit of all the things. And then when qualifying didn’t go the way we wanted it to, I think it caught all of us a little bit off guard. We had higher expectations.

“Now that being said, I go into 2026, and I go, ‘The stakes are just as high.’ And we are held to the same standard of having to go execute. Qualifying’s going to be tough. … But if we do that, we’ll have a great opportunity of not only (getting a good starting position), but having a great Daytona 500. So we’ll see what happens.”