Dale Earnhardt Jr. announces he will donate brain for research

One of NASCAR's most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced to fans he will be donating his brain to science after he dies.

The NASCAR champion revealed the news via Twitter over the weekend, saying his contribution would help further concussion research.

The 41-year-old race car driver told fans of his plans after retweeting an article about three former Raiders players committing to the same research in honor of former teammate Ken Stabler.

Stabler died in July 2015 and was found to have CTE, a brain disease that has been tied to multiple blows to the head.

Earnhart Jr. has suffered his own head trauma in the last few years. He suffered two back to-back concussions in 2012 and has since had his neurological functions tested.

In 2014, NASCAR made baseline concussion testing for its drivers mandatory.

The risks of high-impact contact sports were even spotlighted in the film "Concussion," starring Will Smith.