Dale Earnhardt Jr., wife Amy announce they're expecting their first child

Big news from one of NASCAR’s most legendary families: Dale Earnhardt Jr. has announced that his wife Amy is expecting their first child.

Earnhardt made the announcement via an Instagram shot of pink sneakers, noting that he and Amy “can’t wait to meet” their new daughter.

Earnhardt is nearing the end of his racing career; he has only five races left before he’ll retire and move into the broadcast booth for NBC Sports. He finished seventh Sunday at Talladega, and noted at the time that he hadn’t been feeling the emotion you’d expect about him leaving NASCAR … mainly because he had other things on his mind.

“I’ve got a lot of things going on in my personal life that are very exciting and a lot of things to look forward to next year,” Earnhardt said over the weekend, a cryptic comment that becomes obvious in retrospect. “And the end of the season is coming really fast, so I didn’t really feel much emotion about that and the finality of it until maybe this weekend.”

The Earnhardts wed on New Year’s Eve 2016, and Amy has been a constant presence in Dale’s life ever since. She’ll drive the pace car at Martinsville in two weeks … and, as is now obvious, she won’t be alone.

Related: Watch Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the go90 original series “Road to Race Day”

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.