Randy Weaver didn’t have to retire from driving a Dirt Late Model last month. At 47, and not long removed from a 2015 season that was arguably the best of his career, he knew he could still get the job done once he completely recovered from the post-concussion syndrome that began to plague him one month after he rode out a wild, flipping wreck in the April 2 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at East Alabama Motor Speedway in Phenix City.

But even though doctors have told Weaver he’s “90 to 95 percent” recovered from the frustrating brain injury that sidelined him for most of the 2016 campaign, he can’t be sure when he’ll finally stop experiencing periodic dizziness and headaches and be back to normal. So, with Weaver having no desire to ever again go through the misery and pain he endured this year — and with the veteran driver from Crossville, Tenn., finding himself so enthused about the prospect of grooming the up-and-coming Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., as his replacement in Chip Stone’s Dream Racing No. 116 — he came to the conclusion that he could indeed hang up his helmet.

“I could race if I wanted to as soon as I get healed,” Weaver said. “But I was gonna make sure I’m 300 percent before I try to do anything, and you just don’t know with this type of injury. I don’t want to go through what I went through this year again.

“I love racing and I’ll miss it,” he added, “but I think everything happens for a reason and I just think I’ve got other things I need to do.”

Yes, Weaver is at peace with his decision to walk away from driving. He has a young driver in Overton — a kid who reminds him so much of himself — to mentor and mold, and he has the satisfaction of a sparkling 26-year career behind the wheel in which he established himself as one of the Southeast’s greatest regional racers.

“I talked it over with all my crew guys and, of course, they don’t want me to quit,” Weaver said. “But I just had to tell him, ‘I’m just to that point and this is the next chapter. I want to stay involved, though, and I’d love to help somebody who appreciates it and wants it like I did when I was 25, and Brandon gives me that opportunity.

“You know, I’ve got to do way more than I ever thought I could accomplish. I’ve had a way better career than a little ol’ snot-nosed boy from Jamestown, Tenn., thought he was going to. I’ve got to meet a lot of good people and racing’s been really good to me, and I’ve enjoyed it and definitely appreciate all the people who helped me and all my fans.

“I never was one of them guys who wanted to race when I was 50, 52,” he continued. “That’s never been my goal, to be in my 50s, running around in circles, wrestling that race car on a dirt track, so I’m OK with being done. And I feel like it’s pretty important to show (Overton), if I’m stepping out to give him my seat, that’s how committed I am to making sure he can accomplish what we want to accomplish. We’re gonna continue this deal we started, but it’s just gonna be with a younger me, a guy that wants it and ain’t always had it, and now is gonna have his opportunity. It means a lot that I can help somebody like that.”

Switching gears to a teacher’s role with the fresh-faced Overton harkens Weaver to his similarly modest beginnings in racing, back to when he was a teenager with big aspirations and a father, Glen, who was doing everything he could to help him realize them.

“Through high school I played basketball and was always competitive,” Weaver said. “Racing was what I really wanted to do, but every time you’d say, ‘Well, I’m gonna race,’ everybody just kind of laughed at you and ignored you. All these years later, though, I feel like the dream I had when I was a little boy, the dream I got after watching my dad running asphalt in Indiana, I stuck with that and it actually come true.

“To me, to win 360-and-some races and some races I dreamed about just going to, is pretty special from where I come from. Our first car, we worked on it under white pines — that was our garage — and then on my way to the racetrack we’d have to stop at the car wash and vacuum the pine needles out of it. That’s the way we started, so to get to where I’m at now, to accomplish everything I’ve accomplished, it’s just unbelievable.

“It’s a dream come true that I’ve got to live,” he added, “and now I’m gonna try to help somebody else live it.”

From Weaver’s perspective, the similarities between himself and Overton are striking. For instance, when Weaver watched the video of Overton become extremely emotional talking about his own father’s sacrifices for his career during the victory lane interview after his first career World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series triumph on June 25 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., it tugged on his own heartstrings.

“I’ve been that way before a lot of times, especially with my dad,” Weaver related. “He mentioned his dad in that deal, and I thought, ‘Man, I know exactly where you’re coming from.’ We came from nothing, and my dad done everything possible to give me the very best used stuff to go race. Then once I got to a certain point I asked him one time, I said, ‘Dad, you got me hooked on this racing and you don’t even go anymore … why is that?’ His words was, ‘Son, I took you as far as I could go. Now I was hoping that if you just kept doing what you’ve been doing — you’ve kept your equipment clean and neat, you’ve drove clean and you’ve respected everybody — if anybody could ever give you a break, then you would go off.

“You get to looking back at that, and you think how, every week when he worked, my dad and mom would pull that paycheck together so we could get to a race and then hope I’d win enough to pay it back.”

Weaver, of course, made his dad proud, putting together a racing resume that can’t be overlooked. He won 14 track titles in Tennessee and three Southern All Star Series championships (2009, ’10, ’12), and among his 361 career feature wins are such memorable victories as the $20,000 King of the Commonwealth in 2015 at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica; the $15,000 Fall Classic in ’14 at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss.; a $10,000 Lucas Oil Series feature in ’15 at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.; and the $10,000 Blue-Gray 100 in ’05 at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. His 31 Southern All Star triumphs rank fourth on the tour’s all-time win list, and he’s been victorious on more than a half-dozen different series.

The friendly, approachable Weaver has so many fond memories of his driving days.

“One of the things that pops out to me was when I went to New Smyrna Beach (a half-mile paved track in Florida) in ’93 and drove a guy’s asphalt car against a bunch of good racers in that area and I won the Red Eye 100,” said Weaver, who is one of just two non-Florida drivers to capture New Smyrna Speedway’s annual New Year’s Day Super Late Model event. “I thought that was pretty impressive for never doing that much asphalt racing.

“Of course, we won a heat race at Eldora for the World 100 (in 2007) and I’ve made some of them deals (one Dream and one World 100), which is pretty special to me because I grew up in Indiana and my dad took me over there to Eldora when I was 11 years old and we watched the wedge cars.”

One race, however, means more to Weaver than anything.

“After we won that $20,000 at Virginia (last year) they asked me, ‘Man, is that the biggest thing you’ve done in racing because you’d never been there and you beat some real good guys?’ ” Weaver commented. “I said, ‘It’s one of the top five for me,’ but I’m telling you, the biggest thing that will always stick in my head is the $3,500-to-win Boyd’s (Speedway) race on a Tuesday night (a Southern Nationals event on July 29, 2014). That was the last time my dad got to see me race and stand with me in victory lane (before the elder Weaver passed away Nov. 7, 2014 after battling pancreatic cancer), so by far that’s No. 1.”

And there was another achievement, one which paid nothing but meant a lot, that is unforgettable to Weaver.

“My dad was so big on me being in that DirtonDirt Top 10 (this website’s weekly power rankings that include 25 drivers),” Weaver said. “I’m telling you, he loved that deal. Well, when he passed away I was (ranked) 13th, and he had told me that week, he said, ‘Son, you’re gonna get in that top 10.’ I said, ‘Dad, I don’t know, it’s hard just to be in that Top 25.’ He said, ‘You’ll make it.’

“Well, after he passed away is when I told the boys that I was determined to be No. 1. Whether or not I ever got voted that, I was determined to do everything I could to try to get there … and then that next year is when when we went on that tear (eight straight wins to start the ’15 season, including the rich victory at Virginia Motor) and I got voted No. 1. I reached that goal.”

Now Weaver is retired and focused on getting Overton to that lofty perch in the sport — and after a career filled with checkered flags and a rough 2016 dotted with health scares and doctor visits, he’s fine with that.