Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the 13th recipient of the North Carolina Motorsports Association Achievement in Motorsports Tribute Awards presented by Fifth Third Bank on Tuesday in Concord, North Carolina.

“I have no idea how all of this happened,” Earnhardt said when accepting his award, according to SPEED SPORT. “But there are a lot of people in this room that made it happen. I was around a lot of great people with huge hearts and tremendous motivation. All I wanted to do was do my best not to let them down.”

Among the industry luminaries in attendance were Rick Hendrick, Kyle Petty, Humpy Wheeler, Mike Helton, Steve Phelps and Steve Letarte.

Past winners of the Tribute award include Bill France Jr., Benny Parsons, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Childress, Junior Johnson, O. Bruton Smith, Wheeler, the Ned Jarrett family, Helton, Jeff Gordon, Roger Penske and Jack Roush.

Also recognized on Tuesday was motorsports reporter Deb Williams, who spent most of her journalism career reporting on NASCAR with NASCAR Scene. Williams received the Jim Hunter Memorial Media Award.

Motorsports Industry Awards was handed out to Hickory Motor Speedway (NC), the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation and Kooks Headers & Exhaust.

Charlotte Motor Speedway and NASCAR both shared a Motorsports Industry Award as well, for their work on the first ROVAL NASCAR event.

Finally, five students received North Carolina Motorsports Foundation Scholarships. Hamilton Brown Hewitt was honored with the annual Sam Belnavis Scholarship, while Justin Pugh, Ajinkya Khare, Mitchell Lund and Benjamin Chase Carey were NCMF General Scholarship recipients.

For more information, visit the NCMA website.