Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been around the NASCAR scene for a long time. As such, he has a lot of stories from his racing days, which he often shares on his podcast like any other veteran. There are certain misunderstandings to clear, and these post-retirement podcasts are a goldmine of such revelation, settling unsettled dues and coming to terms. Remember the 2017 exchange of words between Kevin Harvick and Junior?
In 2017, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave a statement about driver salaries. This infuriated Kevin Harvick, who always believed that as a driver, Junior was always on the side of drivers. Being consumed by frustration, not-so-Happy Harvick said, “For me, I believe that Dale Jr. has had a big part in kind of stunting the growth of NASCAR because he’s got these legions of fans and this huge outreach of being able to reach different places that none of us have the possibility to reach, but he’s won nine races in 10 years at Hendrick Motorsports and hasn’t been able to reach outside of that.” Very hurtful, right? This should have been very hard to forgive if a clear line of communication hadn’t been established.
But both of them came clean in a 2021 episode of Dale Jr Download with taking up responsibility for the words that hurt Dale. Junior also introspects his own words and comes clean, saying, “I guess, that I probably could’ve kept my mouth shut about that.”
But something about Dale Jr. being unempathetic keeps popping up on social media. And guess what? Even Dale sees them. Addressing the issue of a long-standing misconception about him, Junior recently came clean.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. reflected on a couple of massive mix-ups
The tale is back from his Dale Earnhardt Inc (DEI) days. The story roots from current Haas Factory Racing employee Kevin Pennell. On his podcast, Dale Jr. shared some stories about Pennell, who used to work for DEI. Apparently, he earned the nickname ‘Two Beer’, owing to not being a very heavy drinker, not that that’s a bad thing. Dale Jr. knows Pennell on a personal level because he is the brother-in-law of former crew chief Tony Eury Jr.
As a matter of fact, there were a few run-ins between the duo, and Dale Jr. confessed to feeling terrible after one such clash. Around that time, Junior was just in his rookie season, so mistakes were likely to be expected, even if he is Dale Earnhardt‘s son.
Dale Jr. said on his podcast, “I ran over him. So in 1998, my first pit stop, Daytona 300 or whatever in the Xfinity Series. I think Kevin’s the one I hit. He ran out there, and he came out there too soon. I was sliding through the pit, I was overshooting the pit, and he was like, ‘Hey! Whoa! I got nowhere to go but up on the hood of this car.’ There’s a picture of him flying through the air, Jack flying, him flying. Luckily, he was fine.” But this is not the incident that still sets things on fire online. It is another such incident, and quite unforgivable, to be honest.
So, here is how everything unfolded. In the words of Dale Jr. himself: “Then there is this clip, this paints me in a bad light. I know that’s hard to believe, we’re racing at Sonoma, which I wasn’t a big fan of. I’m out there struggling my a– off, trying to road course race. Kevin broke his hand during a pit stop. So I’m out there wrestling with this car, and I said something on the radio. Tony Jr. didn’t respond…
I said, ‘Hey! Answer that question I just asked you.’
Tony Jr. was like, ‘Hold up! We’ve got somebody in the pits here with a broke hand.’
I said, ‘Well, tell them to walk it off.‘ I was being a smarta–.”
So now we know where the smoke’s coming from! But folks, Dale has a fair explanation. Per his confession, he was not too accommodating at the time, and he may have come off looking like a villain. To make matters worse, he was at a track where he usually struggled, so it was already a rough day in the office.
Junior later added, “Kevin’s like family; the whole crew is like family. Kevin more so because he is family with Tony Jr., who is my family. We all were very close. People might have heard that, and I still see it on YouTube or clips today where people play it. People go, ‘Wow! What an a——! We were that close that we could talk that much s— with each other.’” A racin’ family is a family no matter what! Keeping these bygones aside, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks forward to a fruitful 2025 with his new role!
Preparing for the ‘tailor-stitched’ new role
Although he has retired from full-time racing, Dale Jr. is still involved in NASCAR through his podcasts and as an owner. However, he is also finding time for other pursuits outside the sport and in other disciplines. He will be co-hosting the Red Bull Soapbox Race TV show in the US for 2025!
If NASCAR fans want to hear him in action, all they have to do is watch the race on Discovery this spring. Alongside NASCAR radio announcer Mike Bagley, Dale Jr. will be commentating and even teased that he may be tempted to race as well. He told Red Bull, “I would absolutely be down for entering a race. One of the things I think would be cool is walking around the paddock. It’d be a lot of fun to see the ingenuity, creativity, and just how people interpreted the rules.”
In a nutshell, the races pit amateur teams and drivers, driving homemade cars, against each other. The primary objective is to drive through obstacle-strewn downhill courses powered by gravity.
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