TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. survived the accidents and left Talladega Superspeedway with his health.
So while disappointed his car was damaged enough that he wasn't a factor in the final three laps, Earnhardt could smile after completing all 188 laps on his way to a seventh-place finish Sunday in the Alabama 500.
Earnhardt missed the final 18 races of 2016 because of a concussion and his health was one of the reasons he decided to retire after this year. He has six career Cup wins at Talladega, a place known for its wild finishes and hard accidents because the cars run in packs.
"I've had some trouble here in the past," said Earnhardt, who suffered a concussion at Talladega in 2012 that forced him to miss two races. "I think anyone who questions our desire to be here and compete this year and our desire to race can look at the risks we took this afternoon knowing that any of those crashes probably would have given me a bit of an injury that would have held me out the rest of the season.
"That's hypothetical, but I think it says a lot about being out there competing, wanting to compete, working hard and racing hard. This was one I was worried about it. In the back of my mind I was a little concerned."
There were seven multicar accidents Sunday at Talladega, with just 14 cars running at the finish. Earnhardt received minimal damage in three of them.
"You can't win the race if you race scared," Earnhardt said. "I've raced scared here before.
"You have to block it and just go out there and take the risks and hope that it's just not your day to get in one of those accidents and it wasn't."
While he survived the accidents, Earnhardt's car was wounded enough that he couldn't keep up with the top cars at the finish. He restarted third with three laps remaining and held on for seventh.
"It just wouldn't go -- in the corners, especially -- so everybody around us was just wasting their time pushing us and they started to figure that out," Earnhardt said.
Earnhardt, who sat on the pole, remained 22nd in the standings and winless in his final season. Five races -- three at tracks where Earnhardt has won -- remain.
"I don't think we've lost hope on winning a race by any means for the rest of the year," Earnhardt said. "I wouldn't want a driver who felt that way. I wouldn't want a team that felt that way either. We will go in there with a solid attitude and see how it works out for us.
"I'm always disappointed when we don't run well at tracks I know we should. We did run well today. I know it was a little bit air out of the bag there to finish seventh -- I know a lot of folks came to see us race because it's the last one here. I hate them to leave slightly disappointed but hopefully they enjoyed everything else we saw. We ran as hard as we could. We did the best we could."