Dale Earnhardt Jr. puts aside retirement at children's hospital

ByBOB POCKRASS
April 27, 2017, 4:37 PM

— -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. met Thomas Jordan two years ago at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The teenager was a frustrated patient in a wheelchair at the time.

When Earnhardt saw him on Thursday, Jordan stood at the doorway for the dedication of a room in Earnhardt's honor. Full of jokes, Jordan went there: "You retiring?"

Beyond Jordan, a media session and a fan in an elevator on his way out of the hospital, Earnhardt gladly got away from retirement talk for four hours during the hospital visit, his first public appearance since the announcement Tuesday that he would retire from NASCAR Cup racing at the end of the season.

"Going through what we went through the last couple of days, you think that this was a monumental, huge thing in your life, but it's really not," Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt makes a visit to the hospital, funded by grants by his sponsor Nationwide, at least once annually and he plans to go again this year in July. His visit Thursday was different, not just because it came after such a big announcement.

A year ago, he visited the kids at the hospital, and he knew he didn't feel right. He couldn't figure out what was wrong. A week later, he stepped out of his race car and missed the final 18 races of 2016 with a concussion. He returned for this season, wanting to make the decision to step out of the car on his own terms.

"It might connect you a little more on a personal level to the kids, understanding what I went through, but as scary as it was, I still had my processing," Earnhardt said. "You come here and you see these kids that are in some really bad positions.

"Again, it's about perspective. ... You're living your life in your own world, worried about your injury or your sickness, your illness -- your retirement, whatever is going on -- and you come here and you're like, 'What am I worried about?' This is what is really going on and these are the people that really need hope. It certainly puts you in check."

During his recovery, Earnhardt at times wondered whether he would be able to see normally again. He comes to the hospital and knows he can deliver a message of having faith and hope, not just from that experience but from seeing the improvement in patients he has known and corresponded with over the last few years.

"When I first came here, I didn't know what exactly to say to a patient. It runs through your head, 'How can I give this person some hope?'" Earnhardt said. "Nothing materializes through your head. ... I [now] feel like I know what to say that feels true.

"You can tell in their eyes whether they hear you or they are looking through you. You can tell you are getting through to them and they're like, 'All right, I hear you. I appreciate you saying that.'"

As he toured the hospital, he met a parent in the natal intensive care unit who held a child born at 23 weeks at just 1 pound, 14 ounces. He went to an activity room that now has his name above the door and painted with the kids. He saw a therapy dog wearing one of his T-shirts.

That wouldn't seem as if it was a normal day, but for Earnhardt it felt normal. He got to be Dale Earnhardt Jr., race-car driver, again -- not Dale Earnhardt Jr. soon-to-be-retired race-car driver.

"I was really glad just to be working today, just to get back to work -- business as usual," Earnhardt said. "I know that I'm going to have to talk about the retirement and go through that process the rest of the year

"I wasn't in a real hurry to announce it just because of having to talk about it every week for the rest of the season. But once we got it done, I was so happy about this day because I knew I was going to work and I get to do what I'm supposed to be doing. It's fun. I'm back in my environment doing what I'm supposed to be doing."