“ I didn’t care if I died. I didn’t want it to happen, but I was miserable in general all the time. I didn’t give a f—.” The 2001 Daytona 500 race changed Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s life forever, as the loss of his father triggered a period of numbness. Yet, just a week after, he returned to the track at Rockingham, crashing into the wall 23 seconds in. Later, a crash in California served as a wake-up call for him to find a way to keep racing. Today, that pain has reduced, but it hasn’t left him.

Yet again, the Earnhardt family is grappling with the loss of their best friend, 15-year-old Pomeranian, Junebug. Amy Earnhardt took to Instagram to share the painful news, writing, “Yesterday my tiny Junebug made his way over the rainbow bridge. My heart is broken.” Earlier this year, they had ope

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