On the heels of Jeff Gordon announcing his decision to retire following the NASCAR 2015 season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has taken stock in his future and knows he may not have much time left in the sport.
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"Yeah, I'm getting up there," said Earnhardt, according to the Kansas City Star. "It makes me reflect more about my own age than Jeff's because you still see Jeff as this guy who could race another 10 years as competitive as he is, so you don't look at him and say, 'Man he's old.'"
Gordon, 43, has won four Sprint Cup championships and is married with two children while Earnhardt, 40, has yet to win a Cup championship and his only dependent is Amy Reimann, his girlfriend.
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Earnhardt is looking to become the first person to win a Cup championship in his 40s since Tony Stewart, who won his third title in 2011 at age 40.
Earnhardt knows his time to accomplish his dream is limited, but he's in no rush to retire.
"Certain factors sort of play into what makes that decision [to retire], and I think his children play a big role in that. ... Right now I can't see anything cropping up around me, and hopefully they won't for a while," Earnhardt said.
Earnhardt admitted that it's weird to have witnessed Gordon's entire Sprint Cup career and now the end of it this year as his teammate, and he compared it to NFL players calling it a career.
"It's weird," said Earnhardt, the defending Daytona 500 champion. "I think about that with football players a lot. I remember when Peyton Manning was a rookie. It just seems like it was 10 years ago, when it's more than that. It just seems amazing to think that guys like Peyton and Drew Brees came into the NFL and they're nearing the end of their careers."
He continued: "It's crazy to see Joe Montana in these commercials and he's an aged man, and you remember when he was this young, athletic quarterback playing on your television screen."
While he can sense his career winding down sometime in the next few years, Earnhardt is excited heading into the 2015 campaign.
"I feel confident about what we did last year and that we can come in and be competitive, and we should be competitive in the equipment we've got," Earnhardt said. "I'll get out there and make all the good decisions I can in the draft and put myself up toward the front and try to work hard to stay there and be mentally disciplined to fend off the challenges and all the stuff we did in the race last year.".
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