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NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has revealed to Daily Mail TV he wants Hollywood star Matt Damon to portray him in a movie about his life.

Earnhardt, 44, will have the chance to convince the 48-year-old actor when he appears with Damon at the Indy 500 car race on Sunday, May 26. 

Damon, who portrays car designer Carroll Shelby in the upcoming movie 'Ford v Ferrari' has been named the race's honorary starter while Earnhardt is the pace car driver to lead the 33 competitors in warm-up laps. 

Earnhardt, who will also act as an NBC commentator for the event, said: 'I'd like Matt Damon to play me in a movie. I think the film should be named 'Racing To The Finish', the name of my autobiography.

'Being the pace driver is a badge of honor that I never thought I'd be considered for. Looking in the mirror is going to be intimidating, like you're a rabbit being chased by a pack of dogs.'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife Amy with their baby daughter Isla, then four-months-old, in Richmond, Virginia at Richmond Raceway on September 21, 2018

NASCAR champion Daily Earnhardt Jr. (left) wants actor Matt Damon (right) to play him in a movie about his life. The pair will appear at the Indianapolis 500 race event on Sunday, May 26

Earnhardt, of Mooresville, North Carolina, retired from full-time NASCAR racing in 2017 after twice winning the Daytona 500, 26 wins in the Sprint Cup series and nine exhibition races.

Amassing a $400 million fortune, he says his proudest achievement was becoming a father for the first time when his wife Amy, 37, gave birth to daughter Isla on April 30, 2018.

And Earnhardt confided to Daily Mail TV he hopes Isla will get a sibling in the future.

But he also revealed starting a family with Amy might never have happened when she gave him an ultimatum before they were married - either he quit his 30-a-day cigarette addiction or she would ditch him. 

Earnhardt said: 'I smoked a pack and a half a day for 15 years. I was embarrassed and ashamed.

'I hid it from the public, you worry what your fans will think. I was an athlete and I should be portraying that I took my job and my health seriously. It had complete control over me.'

He said his father NASCAR Hall of Fame member Dale Earnhardt Sr. hated that he smoked.

Earnhardt said: 'It was extremely disappointing for him. I never was around him with a cigarette in my hand. But he would come over and see an ashtray full of cigarette butts. He disapproved of it. I was upset he was upset but it didn't get me to quit.' 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from full-time NASCAR racing in 2017 after twice winning the Daytona 500, 26 wins in the Sprint Cup series and nine exhibition races

Earnhardt explained his father's disapproval of his habit was nothing compared to that of Amy Reimann's, his wife-to-be who he began dating in 2009.

The couple first met in 2008 when interior designer Amy helped him with a home he was building on his 290-acre estate in Mooresville.

He said: 'Amy was the most-effective at getting me to quit. She changed my life and has made me mature as a person.

'When we first met, she was helping me with my home. I thought she was beautiful. But she was in the middle of a divorce so I waited before asking her on a date. 

'When she told me my smoking was a deal breaker I knew I had to get serious this time about stopping.

'Hearing she may not be able to take next steps with me in our relationship I had to make more of an effort to stop. That really drove the nail in the coffin for me. I really buckled down.

'It took me four times to quit. I tried reading books, hypnotism - you name it, I tried it. The quitting journey is a process. I tried so many things and when I failed you lose hope for the next try.

'But I've been a non-smoker for over six years and it's the best decision that I made for myself.'

Amy Ernhardt (left) and husband Dale Earnhardt Jr. (right) celebrate the first birthday in April 2019 of their daughter Isla at their home in Mooresville, North Carolina

Dale Earnhardt Jr. kisses wife Amy before the start of a race at Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Florida, on July 1, 2017. He semi-retired at the end of that year

Earnhardt agreed to appear in a new advertising campaign for Nicorette's Coated Ice Mint Lozenges because of his own struggles with smoking.

He said: 'Nicorette comes up a couple months ago, 'we got a new product'. I didn't have a tool like this in the toolbox when I was trying to quit. It would have made the journey a whole lot shorter.' 

Amy and Earnhardt were engaged on June 17, 2015 but Earnhardt admits they needed couples therapy to help their relationship.

Earnhardt said: 'Typically around women I'm really shy but Amy certainly changed that a lot and it was just easy to be myself. That hurt and helped at times.

'I'm always super honest, so she kind of had to get used to that honesty and that bluntness that I have. 

'We got to a point where she's like, 'Man, we've got to see somebody. You need some help. I can't get through to you.' Eventually we went to see Jane, a relationship counselor.

'I said, 'Okay, you know, I'll listen and I'll make these adjustments and see how it goes and we just kept working on it from there.'

Earnhardt and Amy were married on December 31, 2016 in Lexington, North Carolina at Childress Vineyards, owned by Earnhardt's friend former NASCAR driver Richard Childress. 

Earnhardt said, 'When we got married the only two people that mattered to me were my dentist and Jane being at the wedding because Jane is the reason why the wedding happened in the first place.'  

Dale Earnhardt Jr. feeds daughter Isla, then four-months-old, on August 9, 2018. He said: 'I'm trying not to be that parent that's hovering and smothering but I love her so much'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. holds his beaming daughter Isla, then six months, in this October 29, 2018 photo. He said: 'If I can have another child that would be amazing. I want to be a great dad'

The shrewd businessman's empire ranges from the race team he co-owns JR Motorsports, a TV production company Hammerhead Entertainment, his North Carolina chain of Whiskey River Beer and Wings restaurants, a car dealership in Florida and an air conditioner filter company.

But pride of place in his achievements is his daughter Isla, who he now enjoys more time with since his retirement from full-time racing in 2017.

Earnhardt said: 'I was worried about the people I was disappointing by retiring. I was almost 43 and maybe had three more competitive years in me. But I was ready to move on. I accomplished what I wanted to.

'I now just want to raise Isla. I am a bit of a worrywart and I'm scared to death of her growing up and getting her feelings hurt from somebody being mean to her.

'I'm trying not to be that parent that's hovering and smothering but I love her so much.

'I wanted a daughter when we were thinking about having kids because Amy is this person who has revolutionized my life and making a miniature version of her running around would be incredible.    

'If I can have another child that would be amazing. I want to be a great dad. I want to give them a normal childhood and do things like sports and dance with them. 

'I have had a great life. There was a lot of excess. Fame, perks, celebrity and it was life in the fast lane for years.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. (left) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (right) pose together at Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February 4, 2001

In this family photo he shared with Daily Mail TV, Dale Earnhardt Jr, then 4, plays with his race legend father Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1978. Earnhardt Jr. said: 'He would love to be a grandparent'

'I am ready to be normal.  Nothing is more fun then going with Amy and Isla to the grocery store to pick up food. It is so simple and it is so much fun for me. I am really enjoying this part of my life.'

Earnhardt said his only regret is that Isla never met her grandfather Dale Ernhardt Sr. 

On February 18, 2001, Earnhardt Sr. crashed in the final lap of the Daytona 500 at Daytona Beach, Florida. The 49-year-old died from a fractured skull.

Earnhardt Sr. earned the nickname 'The Initimidator' for his legendary competitiveness and is seen by many as one of the greatest NASCAR drivers.

He won a total of 76 Winston Cup races over the course of his career, including seven NASCAR Winston Cup championships.

Earnhardt said: 'I miss him not being able to be here with my wife and Isla. He would love to be a grandparent and he would love Amy.

'And Isla would have loved him. There are pictures of him around the house and I show them to her. She loves the photos and I tell her about him.'

'There are still new things I learn about him. I just found out he would walk around the race track and introduce himself to everyone.

'To learn how he took a lot of time to see everyone, to know everyone by name, was amazing.'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates winning the NASCAR Daytona 500 at Daytona Beach, Florida on February 23, 2014. He had previously won in 2004

Earnhardt, who earned a degree in automotive technology at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, North Carolina, said his father was very keen on education.

He said: 'The greatest lesson he taught me was get an education. He wanted me to finish school. He quit school in the 8th grade, he never got his diploma and he was so ashamed by that.

'He regretted the decision to leave school and knew how badly it had disappointed his own father. 

'He said if I went to college and applied myself, he promised to help me in whatever it was I did after that.

'But if I didn't, he warned me he wouldn't help me in my professional career. 

'I didn't mind being compared to him. He was a champion and someone I looked up to.  I didn't want people to forget him and his impact on the sport.

'Yes, his death was shocking but I was a race car driver and dad taught me you go to the next race. 

'I could have just drunk myself into oblivion, felt sorry for myself and shut down. But we had hundreds of employees. I knew what I signed up for. I knew the risks.'

Earnhardt explained he first considered retiring from full-time racing in 2016 because of a history of concussions which began with a crash in August 2012 at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced his retirement at the end of the 2017 NASCAR season during a press conference in Concord, North Carolina on April 25, 2017

He said: 'I suffered a really bad concussion in 2012 that made me think how delicate I was. It scared me, it frightened me. I was able to get well again. I raced with confidence again and we won the Daytona 500 in 2014.

'But after more crashes I would get sick again. I would feel like I had a hangover, it was a foggy, disconnected sort of feeling.

'In the past, my doctor had shown me how to get better if I felt ill so I would do those things. I also began documenting all the incidents in my phone, from 2013 onwards.

'It turned out what I was in fact doing was layering concussion on top of concussion.

'I woke up one day in 2016 feeling dizzy. I hadn't had a crash for several weeks so I went to my doctor. He said it was definitely a concussion.

'Then I had a crash a while later, in June 2016, and the symptoms were far worse. I suffered balance problems and vision issues that I'd never experienced before.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. agreed to appear in an advertising campaign for Nicorette's Coated Ice Mint Lozenges, which he is pictured holding, because of his own struggles with smoking. 'I didn't have a tool like this in the toolbox when I was trying to quit. It would have made the journey a whole lot shorter.'

'I went to see Micky Collins, the leading doctor on concussion who works with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he's like, 'Boy, you've got some real problems.'

'I was having speech problems and I couldn't walk two steps without falling over. We worked on this through the last half of 2016.

'I was done. I was going to have to retire. Me and my wife made the decision when I was in rehab that I wasn't going to get back in the car, ever.  

'But then when the rehab finished I still wanted to race. I had one year left on my contract.

'I expected the doctor to shut me down but he said the issues he had seen in me were not as bad as the footballers he had ordered to stop playing.

 'He said if I did have an accident I had the potential to get hurt like anyone else out on the track. But he could fix it.

'So I finished full-time racing at the end of 2017 and I am only going to run one race this year. I am in good physical shape and the cars are super safe.'

Earnhardt is now delighted to be a sports analyst for NBC.

He said: 'I still have the urge to be at the race track but I need a purpose. I want to be a part of the sport and being in the broadcast booth gave me the opportunity to be involved and have a new meaning.

'I am having a blast as a broadcaster. I've got to travel to places like South Korea, the Super Bowl, and Kentucky Derby.

'I am exploring what all of that means and where it all goes.'