“Shut the Door and Cried”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shares Never Heard Before Story of Despair From His NASCAR Career

It is not often we get to hear stories of NASCAR drivers sharing their moments of vulnerability. But this is what former Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared while speaking with Kenny Wallace. The former DEI and HMS driver shared a story of when he could not hold in his tears after a slew of poor qualifying sessions.

He said, “I’ve never shared this one with anybody, but I’ll give you this one.” Junior was not sure which year this happened exactly but stated that it could be somewhere between 2015-2017, towards the final leg of his career.

The Hall of Famer explained that he felt like he was consistently qualifying in the 23rd position for eight weeks in a row. Although he did not really qualify in that position for eight weeks in a row, he felt like he was stuck in a rut and unable to improve his performance. This feeling of mediocrity was frustrating for him, and he was unsure of how to overcome it.

“I didn’t know why we couldn’t do better. And we’re at Richmond and it was wearing on me. I’d take it home and think about it and the race performance probably weren’t a whole lot better, to be honest with you. But I qualified 22nd or 23rd and went back to the bus and walked into the bus and walked back into the bathroom and shut the door and cried,” Junior said.

He said that he was not sure what to do about it and neither was his wife Amy able to help him out as he broke down. Junior said, “You’re doing this all your life. You know, in your heart, you believe you’re good at it. You want to believe you’re one of the best at it. And no matter what you’re doing, no matter how you try to approach it, you keep getting the same result.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not understand why qualifying mattered so much

Speaking further into the conversation, Junior elaborated that aside from this, he has never cried over results. He added, “But that’ll tell you right there that one day a Richmond that qualifying effort was all I could take. It had been building and building weeks and weeks, week in and week out. I don’t know why.”

Junior then said that he has had race results throughout his career, that “hurt your heart.” But there was never an instance where he got out of the car and went home and cried over it. “But for whatever reason that day I was just at my wit’s end and only qualifying to do that to you. I don’t know why qualifying mattered that much.”

The pressure of performing during qualifying sessions can take a massive toll on drivers. Especially knowing that they could do way better in their prime. But being unable to perform at their level best, especially when everyone is watching, might have been a soul-crushing experience, which eventually emerged in the form of tears for Junior.