NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. expecting first child

Oct. 17 (UPI) — NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to be a first-time dad.

The 43-year-old stock car racing pro announced in an Instagram post Monday that wife Amy Reimann is pregnant with a baby girl.

“Excited to share the wonderful news that @mrsamyearnhardt and I are expecting our first child,” he captioned a photo of a pair of pink sneakers. “A little girl!!!! We are both thrilled and can’t wait to meet her.”

Earnhardt also shared a screenshot of a text-message conversation with friend and fellow driver Landon Cassill on Twitter. Cassill’s wife, Katie Linsted, dreamt Earnhardt was expecting a daughter weeks before the news broke.

“So @landoncassill text me Sept 4th. We had just learned we were expecting 3 days before this. Hard keeping that truth from him till today,” Earnhardt wrote.

Earnhardt and Reimann married in Lexington, N.C., on New Year’s Eve in December 2015 after getting engaged that June. The race car driver previously voiced his desire for children in an interview with E! News.

“I would love to have kids,” he shared. “I always thought the greatest accomplishment in life was to raise a child aside from getting married in the first place. Everybody tells me it’s the greatest thing ever and I take their word for it.”

Earnhardt is the son of late stock car racing pro Dale Earnhardt, who died at age 49 in 2001 after colliding with another driver during the final lap of the Daytona 500, and the grandson of late race car driver Ralph Earnhardt.