Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr. friendship on display amid championship celebration

Best friends Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. each had a night to remember Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The NASCAR season had just wrapped and two parties were in full swing. One saw Martin Truex Jr. reveling on a stage in front of the main grandstand section of Homestead-Miami Speedway, while a few hundred yards away, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his team had turned his Chevrolet into a makeshift bar.

Truex was celebrating having won the Cup Series championship with the customary consumption and spraying of sparkling wine. Amidst a mob scene, Earnhardt and company were toasting beers over his pending retirement and a career that had just concluded.

It was a special night for both, made all the more so because Truex and Earnhardt are close friends. And while the much of the focus had been on Earnhardt’s pending retirement, NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver was quick to turn the spotlight onto his friend Sunday night who had just won his first-ever Cup championship.

“It's so good to see him win this title,” Earnhardt said. “He is a professional and a gentleman and just a perfect friend. We've been pals a long, long time. I was glad to have a hand in getting his career going. I said, ‘Man, we're going to have fun in Vegas celebrating your championship.

“I am so proud of him. I can't wait [for] his life slows down a little bit so we can have a cold beer together.”

After an hour of drinking with his crew members, Earnhardt and his wife Amy made their way to the stage to congratulate Truex and his longtime girlfriend, Sherry Pollex. It was there the two celebrations merged.

“Dale has meant so much to me, and to see how happy he was, genuinely happy tonight to come to victory lane,” Truex said. “I love him like a brother. … It meant a ton that him and Amy came over and said congratulations and just genuine happiness, and that's what friends are all about, true friends.”

It was Earnhardt who provided Truex with his big break in NASCAR, offering him a full-time ride with the Xfinity Series team he co-owned. Earnhardt even let Truex stay with him, offering him a guest bedroom before Truex eventually moved to another house on Earnhardt’s property.

Truex capitalized on the opportunity by winning consecutive championships, and it was while competing in NASCAR’s No. 2 division (2004-05) that Truex met Pollex. In 2015, Pollex was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer and is currently going through chemotherapy for a recurrence, and her battle added to the feel-good nature of Truex’s win.

“The sport needs drivers like Martin Truex Jr.,” Earnhardt said. “He's just a really good guy, very easy to relate to, easy to talk to. And everything that he's went through as a driver, and beyond that, everything he's went through in his personal life, everything Sherry has went through, the whole sport has been behind them for so long and supported them for so long.”

Throughout the weekend in the buildup to the championship finale, Earnhardt chided Truex, who was one of four title-eligible drivers, that he wasn’t focused enough on Sunday’s race. But their friendship and banter proved a nice distraction, as during downtime Truex would watch surveillance cameras on the hunting land he and Earnhardt own together.

“I like looking at my trail cameras and watching my deer walk around and stuff,” Truex said. “A big one pops up and I'm like, ‘Hey, Dale, when are you going to Ohio? I was telling him what stand to go to and stuff, to pass the time.”

Homestead marked Earnhardt’s final Cup race, but not his involvement in NASCAR nor his driving career. He will make two-to-three Xfinity starts in 2018 and become an analyst for NBC Sports, which broadcasts the second half of the season.

“He's changed a lot throughout the years, from when I met him to who he is now, but he's always changed for the better,” Truex said. “He's just been an amazing friend and always been there no matter what I needed.

“I'm so proud of his career and who he is and the fact that this sport means so much to him that he's going to stay around next year and do TV.”