3600. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (born October 10, 1974), better known simply as Dale Earnhardt, Jr., is a professional American race car driver and team owner who drives the #88 Diet Mountain Dew/United States National Guard Chevrolet Impala in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports, and drives the Unilever Chevrolet Impala for his own team, JR Motorsports, in the Nationwide Series . He is the son of the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt, Sr., and the grandson of both the late NASCAR driver Ralph Earnhardt and Robert Gee, the well known stock car fabricator. Earnhardt, Jr. is also the half-brother of former driver Kerry Earnhardt, the uncle of driver Jeffrey Earnhardt, and the stepson of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team co-owner Teresa Earnhardt. Earnhardt, Jr. has won the Most Popular Driver Award eight times. He has an estimated net worth of $300 million.

Dale Jr. qualified for the 2011 Budweiser Shootout with new crew chief Steve Letarte. [21] He began the season, by drawing the pole position at the 2011 Budweiser Shootout, where he finished 19th in the race.[22] On February 13, he earned his first pole position at Daytona International Speedway, as well as his first at a track that uses restrictor plates. Due to a practice crash, he had to start at the back of the field for both the duel race and the 500. He finished 24th in the Daytona 500 after being wrecked with 4 laps to go.[23] Over the next seven races Earnhardt, Jr. would achieve 5 top ten finishes including a 2nd place finish at Martinsville after losing the lead to Kevin Harvick with 4 laps to go, and a 4th place finish at Talladega in a photo finish with Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon. Jr came within half a lap of snapping his then-104 race winless streak at the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when he ran out of fuel during a green-white-checkered finish, finishing 7th. The following week at Kansas, Jr finished 2nd to Brad Keselowski. He followed this up with a solid 6th place finish at Pocono. Over the course of the next three races, Jr would slide to 7th in the Championship points, finishing 21st at Michigan, 41st at Infineon, and 17th at Daytona. On September 1, 2011 Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he had signed a five-year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports to drive the 88 until 2017. On September 19th, 2011, Junior Made his first Chase for the Sprint Cup appearance since 2008 at Chicagoland. At the season finale at Homestead, he finished 11th and finished 7th in the final points standings.