Dale Earnhardt Jr. blinked back tears as the moment socked him at Daytona International Speedway — a track bursting with triumph and tragedy for his family — that he was, with a country star and a NASCAR champ in tow,

"Where else do you go and barely make the field and cry tears of joy? Nowhere," Earnhardt said of the fabled speedway and race.

Where else do you go and barely make the field and cry tears of joy?” The answer is Daytona, the place that means so much to the Earnhardt family.