They say that every dog has his day and personally, I agree as far as Dale Earnhardt Jr. is concerned. That man, that myth, that legend, that dog and machine behind the wheel, has indeed had his day, both as a victor of the world-famous Daytona 500, and as the conqueror of my heart.

It’s time to look at the facts here, Earnhardt has been slipping down the rankings at Daytona since his last win in 2014. In 2015 he finished third, before crashing all the way down to thirty-sixth in 2016, and then dropping yet another peg to thirty-seventh this year. I know what all you die-hard fans out there are going to say, “well you know, three years after his first triumph at Daytona, Junior finished the race in thirty-second place, before ultimately coming back to win NASCAR’s most well-known annual circuit a second time.” Well I have news for you: That’s not happening twice!

Don’t get me wrong, he’s still one of the greatest and most rightly beloved racers to have ever put pedal to metal on this side of the Atlantic, or any other side for that matter, but let’s face it, however great he is, the man has about as much a chance of holding the Harley J. Earl Trophy again as he does of holding my hand as we walk along the Carolina shore on cool summer night, which is to say, no chance at all.

The man’s heart is still in the race, but his mind is elsewhere, and as long as that is the case, he’ll never be able to manage a third victory at Daytona. Dale Jr.’s got too much going on to give the 500 his all these days. With an Alabama speedway to bear his name under construction, a signature line of eye-glasses, ownership of several Whiskey River bar franchises, not to mention a new wife (to whom I harbor absolutely ZERO resentment), he just cannot give the track the same attention he used to; he told me the same thing.

Greatness comes and greatness goes, and when it goes it only seldom comes again, much like the deep and profound affections I once held for that giant of modern stock car racing.