Dale Earnhardt Jr. Exclusive: NASCAR, Ownership, and Legends

Two-time Daytona 500 winner and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke exclusively with Hard Rock Bet ahead of the upcoming season.

The JR Motorsports co-owner, who was named NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver a record 15 consecutive times from 2003 to 2017, discussed the contrasting pressures of life as a driver and team owner and offered his perspective on NASCAR’s reboot of the Chase format.

Earnhardt Jr. also reflected on his favorite race move by his father, Dale Earnhardt, and revealed which Formula 1 driver he believes would be best suited to succeed in NASCAR.

The upcoming NASCAR season and the life of an owner

We opened the conversation talking about the upcoming NASCAR season, from the reboot of the Chase to expectations for Earnhardt Jr.’s team. We also discussed the differences between being a driver and an owner, both of which Earnhardt Jr. has experience with.

NASCAR are rebooting the Chase, and it has had mixed reviews but what do you make of it?

Yeah, I’m pretty excited about the change in the points and how we’ll determine our champion. The last several years have been pretty exciting, and the sports had some pretty incredible moments, but there was a spreading philosophy or opinion amongst the race fans and many people in the industry that there may be a more pure and genuine way to determine the rightful champion every year.

I think NASCAR created this committee and I was lucky enough to be asked to be a part of it. There were many, many people on this committee, and we went through a lot of scenarios and ran a lot of scenarios and problems through the wringer to see what the best format might be going forward, and we had a lot of different opinions, but I think we landed somewhere nicely in the middle.

It’s not a bridge too far for some of the more traditional fans, or the more nostalgic fans, and it’s not a bridge too far for some of the fans who’ve only known the elimination playoff style format. So, it lands right in the middle and gives everybody a little bit of everything.

While I believe it’s still better at determining a more deserving champion. It’s hard to say all that without feeling like you’re taking away from anything that the past champions have done to secure the title.

They certainly went through a very difficult system to be able to attain the title, and they should be celebrated as champions. But I’m really looking forward to the way we’re going to be doing it going forward.

You’re bringing your team back to Daytona 500 for the opening race in NASCAR. We’d love to know how excited you are ahead of it, especially with the team that you have…

Well, going to Daytona, the Daytona 500’s the biggest race of the year, and when I think about my career, my life, all the things that I’ve accomplished, one area where I’ve not really been able to experience as much as I’d hoped was on the ownership side in the Cup Series, at the top level of our sport.

I’d always dreamed of being an owner and entering a car in the Daytona 500 from the owner’s perspective. I got to experience that last year; it was a lot of fun. We had a very drama filled experience trying to get into the race and finishing in the top 10.

It was really incredible. It ticked all the boxes, and we’re back to do it again, so I’m not sure what this leads to down the road for us, but I’m going to take these experiences while we can have them, while they’re here in front of me.

I’m going to seek out every opportunity for us to go to the racetrack and compete and race. That’s what we’re doing, that’s what we’re about, that’s what we love. We really had a great experience last year, and that’s going to be a tall order to try to measure up to going back again this year, but we’re going to have fun regardless.

I’ll be there as soon as the truck pulls into the racetrack and the liftgate comes down to unload the car. I can’t wait to be part of the whole process.

What is your outlook for the team this year, in terms of the ambition and in terms of the performances?

I think the points format and what we discussed earlier about how that’s changed is really going to dominate the conversation all year long. How you go about winning a championship has changed, and so the mentality, the approach, the preparation, the mindset for all the drivers will need some tweaking.

Who can figure that out? Who can adapt to that the quickest? Who can take advantage of that the quickest? I remember racing under a very similar format, and you walked into the season with a lot of anxiety, honestly, around the first, let’s say, 4 to 6 races.

If you didn’t come into the season and have consistent finishes, if you stumbled, if you had mistakes, if you crashed out, you immediately put yourself at a deficit to the rest of the guys who’ve had great starts, and that is very, very hard to overcome, even throughout the long process of the year.

I can’t wait to really watch the season play out, and I will be more inclined to be plugged into every race, knowing what’s at stake, what’s at risk. For the drivers, should they have a bad day, because that’s really going to matter this year as the win and you’re in moniker has gone away.

You’re going to have to have great finishes. You’re not going to be able to have a lot of engine failures, or bad mistakes, or DNFs. You’ve got to finish races, you’ve got to get points all year long, so the drivers will have to shift their mindset a little bit, from just going out there and trying to win, and not really worrying about the results. Otherwise, they’re going to have to care about every single race and every result.

You’re speaking about how being an owner now is different to being a driver, but in terms of pressure, what’s the difference?

When I was driving, you felt responsible for everything, the good and the bad and if you got a good result, you felt very rewarded, and you felt like you had a lot of influence on that.

But if you didn’t get a good result behind the wheel, you felt like you were the reason, and that was tough but that was part of being the quarterback of the team, right?

If you’re going to be the quarterback, if you’re going to be the driver, you have got to be willing to take getting your teeth kicked in, being embarrassed, humiliated, but also if you’re going to take the celebrations and the accolades and the credit for when you win, you’re absolutely going to get it when you don’t.

As an owner, you don’t have to worry so much about the week to week performance. I think as an owner, you’re really judged on the culture of your business. You’re judged on the long term success, you’re judged on a bigger picture, not week to week, lap to lap.

As a driver, you’re judged by every corner you run and you do that to yourself, too. You’re also judging yourself. As an owner, it’s all about the long game. It’s how I treat my employees. It’s how successful the entire year was. Have we put ourselves in a good position to retool and be good again the following year?

You’re making decisions that affect the team over the course of many, many months, so you have to be very smart about that, and it’s not quite as up and down emotionally like I experienced as a driver. The driver experience is like a rollercoaster every single day. As an owner, it’s much more forgiving, I would say.

Regret, admiration, and Fast and Furious

Earnhardt Jr. reflected on the biggest regret of his legendary driving career and shared some of his fondest memories in the sport. He also discussed which current and former Formula 1 drivers he believes could successfully transition to NASCAR, along with whether he would be willing to appear in the next Fast and Furious movie, scheduled for release in 2028.

You said that the one regret of your career was not being a good teammate. What did you mean by that?

I think in the first half of my career, I was competitive with my teammates and while I was okay with seeing them do well, I was somewhat envious, and it was me who was supposed to be the best car in the organization, in my mind.

My teammates were almost a complementary piece to the whole puzzle, and that probably wasn’t the best way to be a good teammate. I wasn’t really as supportive, or I didn’t lend them advice, or try to really help them as much as I probably could have.

I went to Hendrick Motorsports and then I wasn’t the big man on campus anymore. I was working with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who had won championships and had a ton of seniority at Hendrick Motorsports, and I learned what it was like to be on the other side of things, and I learned what it was like to watch them be good teammates to me, to be supportive, to be helpful.

I’m fully transparent. If I feel like I didn’t hit the target, or if I feel like I didn’t live up to my potential, I’m completely comfortable telling you that and I definitely could have been a better teammate when I was younger, but man, when you’re in your late 20s, and things are happening so fast for you, it’s very selfish.

It’s a very selfish thing when you’re in sports as an athlete, it can be easy to be selfish, and typically being selfish can be rewarding in competition. But I just think there were times where I could have been a better teammate, more supportive, more helpful. But I really didn’t know how to do that.

On social media, the viral clip of Ross Chastain’s ‘Hail Melon’ in 2022 resurfaced, what is the most impressive race move you have witnessed as well as your own race move?

I wouldn’t say it’s a specific move, but I like to go back and watch the 1987 All-Star Race that my dad won. I like to watch that because my dad didn’t have the best car that day but his almost stubbornness and refusal to lose… I don’t know that I can honestly say I see that in a lot of drivers, or have seen that in other drivers in the past.

He just wouldn’t concede. He just fought as hard as he could to win that race, and if you go back and watch it, I think it kind of explains itself, but that sort of terribly stubborn refusal to concede [attitude] was so interesting to me.

I saw a flash of that, actually, a reminder of that from Max Verstappen at Miami last year. I went to the F1 race for the first time. The McLarens were faster, much faster, but he had the track position in the middle of the race, and he knew that eventually they were probably going to get by him, but how he made that as hard as possible was really admirable.

Instead of just going, “You know what, they’re just quicker, I’m just going to finish second or third”, instead he made it as hard as possible, just so stubbornly a nuisance if you will, to allowing the pass to happen. I really appreciate that in a driver and that was a fun race for me to go back and watch.

In my own career, I would say, watching some of the races from the early 2000s at Talladega. I would like to also go back and, personally I don’t like talking about myself, but if I could then I really enjoy watching the last several laps of the 2004 Daytona 500 and some of the ways that I had to work to figure out a way to get by Tony Stewart without really any help at all.

It was a lot of fun to relive those moments, and I do watch them. I’ll see clips on social media, and when I run across a clip, I’m going to sit down and watch it. Those are some great days.

There’ve been a few former Formula 1 drivers who have tried NASCAR in the past from Jenson Button driving part-time to the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. Has there ever been a F1 driver who has impressed you in NASCAR, and do you think there’s any current F1 driver that could make that transition and be a success?

I mean, I would love to see Max Verstappen give it a try. He’s incredible and I think his curiosity, his work ethic, I think all of that would play a great role in allowing him to be successful.

Plus, our cars have changed a lot. Our cars have independent rear suspension, the transaxle diffuser… our cars aren’t the stock cars from 10, 20 years ago, and so I think the opportunity for an F1 guy to have success is much better today than it was 20 years ago.

I was hoping that Daniel Ricciardo would come to NASCAR after his decision to leave Formula 1 and that may still happen. Daniel’s still relatively young.

I used to watch F1 very heavily back when Michael Schumacher was battling with Mika Häkkinen and those guys, I mean, those were incredible years. I had always wished for the opportunity to hear what Michael Schumacher thought about driving a stock car.

I only wanted him to be able to get in the car, run a couple hours, and I always thought Michael was the greatest race car driver that I ever knew in my life with everything that he accomplished, and how good he was, and I’m like, you know Dale Earnhardt’s my hero, but Michael Schumacher was the man.

Unfortunately, I never got to really understand what he might think about a stock car, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that I get excited when drivers from different disciplines from F1, or any car whatever it may be, come over and drive our stuff, because I’m anxious to hear what they say. I have so much admiration for their ability and their disciplines. I know what we’re doing is so different, and it’s fun to hear their opinions and point of view.

Would you appear in the new Fast and Furious movie coming out in 2028 if you were asked?

If I was asked, I would absolutely say yes. I mean, it’d be a great opportunity. I believe that’s an NBC property, I’m not 100% sure, but, you know, those are some great friends of mine. I’ve worked with NBC in the past, as a broadcaster.

But yeah, I mean if they requested any amount of my time to participate, I would be 100% in.