Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s NASCAR career is starting to be recognized by sporting bodies and in four months he’ll be honored by his home state.
The native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, will be among 11 sports figures in the state who will be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in May.
Earnhardt, a 26-time Cup winner and an analyst for NBC Sports, will be the 13th motorsports representative inducted into Hall of Fame.
He joins Lee Petty (1966), Richard Petty (1973), Ned Jarrett (1990), Junior Johnson (1992), Herb Thomas (1992), Buck Baker (1992), his father Dale Earnhardt (1994), Humpy Wheeler (2004), Richard Childress (2008), Dale Jarrett (2011), Rick Hendrick (2015) and Ray Price (2016).
Established in 1963, the NCSHOF is on the third floor of the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.
Earnhardt and the other inductees will be enshrined in an induction banquet May 3 at the Raleigh Convention Center.