Why Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 2014 Season Will Be His Most Memorable

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won't walk out of 2014 with his first championship, but he will walk away with his first grandfather clock. Right now, that feels just as sweet.

Junior won the Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon, just holding off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon. It was his fourth victory, 12th top-five and 18th top-10 finish of the year.

This has been by far his most impressive Sprint Cup season since 2004 and the most unforgettable stretch of his career.

Though he was eliminated from the Chase last week at Talladega after failing to finish higher than 17th in any of the three races in the Contender Round, there was nothing bittersweet about his victory at Martinsville.

"We've tried to win here so many years. This place is so special to me, I wanted to win here so bad," he said on ESPN as he boisterously celebrated this win with his team. "Real emotional win. I can't believe we won here. This means so much to all of us."

He was pretty excited about the prize he got to take home as well. "I've wanted that grandfather clock ever since I was a little boy," he said.

This felt like a year of destiny for Junior, particularly after he began the season with a win at the Daytona 500 and followed that up with two runner-ups. The stars seemed aligned: It's his last year with his longtime crew chief, Steve Letarte, who will be joining NBC when the season is over, and he had a rather significant birthday, turning 40 earlier this month.

Most important, he was driving better than he had in years; after all, he had only four wins from 2005-2013, a total he matched this season. (In addition to Daytona and Martinsville, Earnhardt won both races at Pocono Raceway.)

But after he was knocked out of contention for his first championship, Junior refused to be disappointed and instead just focused on making the most of the final four races of the season, as Jared Turner of Fox Sports reported:

"

We all knew this was hard. We all knew you've got to put a whole lot of work in, and there's not a ton of reward but there are some rewards and when they come, they're very sweet, so we all knew that going in. We knew there was potential for disappointment. There's a lot of disappointments in life. Getting knocked out of the Chase and not being able to fight for the championship this year will not be in the top five or top 10 disappointments.

"

After Talladega, a glass-half-full Earnhardt set his sights on winning at Martinsville, a track where he had 11 top-five finishes but zero victories.

He led for 79 laps Sunday, but of course the race didn't come without drama—he was cruising out in front until a caution with 10 laps to go negated his lead. Then he was faced with a big decision: to pit or not to pit. Chris Estrada of NBC Sports wrote about the crucial choice:

"

[Tony] Stewart, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and David Ragan opted to stay out, while Earnhardt, Gordon, and Clint Bowyer chose to go in for service. Bowyer won the race out of the pits ahead of Earnhardt, Denny Hamlin and Gordon, but Stewart, Stenhouse and Ragan moved up to the Top 3 with Bowyer in fourth and Earnhardt in fifth.

With five laps left, the green flag came out again—and Earnhardt and Gordon made their surge. Then with three to go, Earnhardt got by Stewart on the inside off Turn 4 for the race-winning pass.

"

There was no doubt about it: Earnhardt and his team made the right decision on a day that was going to be incredibly emotional, win or lose. 

Ten years ago, a plane carrying 10 members of Hendrick Motorsports crashed, and all the passengers on board lost their lives. Team owner Rick Hendrick lost his son, brother and twin nieces in the tragedy.

"I lost my daddy a long time ago and I know how that is," Junior said after the race to The Associated Press (via ESPN). "I can't imagine losing the magnitude of people that Rick lost. This honors them. Real proud to win Martinsville here."

Don Petersen/Associated Press

His teammate, Gordon, one of the eight remaining drivers in the Chase, now takes the points lead heading to Texas, while Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski—two of the favorites for the crown—need a win in the next two races to advance to the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway after crashes Sunday.

But none of the math matters to Earnhardt anymore.

The 40-year-old fan favorite will head into the final three races of the season content to play the role of spoiler and add to his legacy.

Father Time might not necessarily be on his side, but Junior won the clock at Martinsville to guarantee that this is a season he'll never forget.