The news caught Royals manager Ned Yost by surprise on Tuesday morning.
Well, that’s not quite accurate. Yost knew this day was coming, probably soon. He just did not expect to hear Dale Earnhardt Jr. announce his retirement from NASCAR, effective at the end of this season, as Yost spent another morning here in Chicago.
“It surprised me,” Yost said. “But it didn’t surprise me.”
Yost, a longtime friend of Earnhardt Jr.’s father, the late Dale Earnhardt, spent a minute or two on Tuesday sending a text to Dale Jr. The two will catch up at some point, Yost said.