Watch: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Sister Kelley Nearly Tears up Recollecting Her Bond With Father Dale Earnhardt

Kelley Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. is one of the greatest motorsport icons to ever live. Above his seven-record Cup Series championships and multiple elusive victories, he was a great father. Talking to former racer Kenny Wallace recently, his daughter Kelley narrated a story that showcased the softer side of the man who everyone knew largely as the “Intimidator”.

Kelley recalled a message from her father when she was enrolled in UNC Wilmington, “It said… I don’t wanna cry. It said, ‘It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. I forgot what you look like.’ Because I never came home. I got to college and I was like I’m outta here. I’m at Wilmington, I’m at the beach, I got a full-time job at the mall…So I got that flower, and I was like, it’s been forever since I’ve been home.”

Fighting through the tears, Kelley continued to reveal how she’d put forward two conditions to her father if he wanted her to move back home. The first was that she could race cars and the second was that she could have her own apartment. Earnhardt Sr. had no option but to comply and Kelley moved back closer to her old man. She finished her college career at UNC in 1995.

She is now the CEO of JR Motorsports and manages the organization along with her brother Dale Earnhardt Jr. She joined the team in 2001 as a General Manager and helped the company bloom under her able leadership. Major magazines across the country including ESPN, Charlotte Business Journal, and the Associated Press have identified her as one of the most powerful women in NASCAR.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s tricky relationship with his father as a youngster

In an interview with Graham Bensinger in 2023, Dale Jr. revealed how Junior wouldn’t have gotten into racing in the first place if he hadn’t seen it as the only way to win his father’s approval. He noted that it was only when he started racing and winning events he actually had things to talk to his father about. “He’d come into the shop and want to know what happened. So I got more and more into, ‘Hey! I want to do racing because it gets me closer to Dad’,” he said.

Unlike Kelley, Earnhardt Sr.’s love for his son was built upon their joint passion for the engine. Once Dale Jr. got into motorsports their bond grew stronger than ever. The scenes of Earnhardt Sr. hugging his son tightly after his first-ever Cup Series win at Texas in 2000 serve as a testament to the same. Regardless of his approach, the Earnhardt family can’t help but still sorely miss his absence. 

Post Edited By: Srijan Mandal
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Sr kelley earnhardt

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Gowtham Ramalingam

Gowtham is a NASCAR journalist at The SportsRush. Though his affinity for racing stems from Formula 1, he found himself drawn to NASCAR's unparalleled excitement over the years. As a result he has shared his insights and observations by authoring over 3000 articles on the sport. An avid fiction writer, you can find him lost in imaginary worlds when he is not immersed in racing. He hopes to continue savoring the thrill of every lap and race together with his readers for as long as he can.

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