CONCORD, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. closed out 2017 with a first -- strapping on skis and heading down a mountain.
The driver had never been snowskiing before, and to help celebrate his first anniversary with wife Amy, the couple made the trek to Aspen, Colorado, where Jimmie Johnson was spending the holidays with his family.
It wasn't long before Johnson got Earnhardt to hit the slopes -- and the driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet was amazed how quickly Earnhardt picked it up.
"We got him on skis a couple of days ago," Johnson told The Aspen Times. "In two hours of just playing around, we went to the top (of Aspen Mountain) and he came down. So he's on a fast pace. He's a natural."
"He's always getting me into stuff like that. He talked me into going skiing and it was a blast," Earnhardt told The Aspen Times. "We spent about three hours and we finally made one run from the top down. It was so much fun. There are some similarities in racing. I'd water skied before as a kid. There are some similarities with water skiing and how you transfer your weight."
On Instagram, Earnhardt shared a few photos of the memorable way he capped 2017.