Dale Earnhardt Jr is an American race car driver who was born on October 10, 1974, in Kannapolis, North Carolina. He was born to Brenda Lorraine and Dale Earnhardt Sr. He grew up with an older sister named Kelley and a half-brother named Kerry. Earnhardt Jr's parents divorced after he was born. When he was six, his family's home burned down in a fire and he was often cared for by his older sister Kelley while his father was competing in NASCAR. Earnhardt Jr attended the high-performance driving school run by Andy Hillenburg. He took to racing at an early age and began his own career as a race car driver at the age of 17. His first car was a 1979 Monte Carlo that he shared with his half-brother Kelley. He eventually joined the Late Model Stock Car Division and competed on the North and South Carolina short tracks. Earnhardt Jr drove a No. 3 Chevrolet at the Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina and the East Carolina Motor Speedway in Robersonville, North Carolina.

He ran nine Busch Series races from 1996 to 1997 before driving for his father's team full-time in 1998. Earnhardt Jr won his first race at the  DirecTV 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. He went on to win two Daytona International Speedway races before retiring in 2017. Earnhardt Jr married his girlfriend Amy Reimann and the couple had a daughter named Rose Earnhardt in 2018.