Owning a NASCAR team is like having a child. You want to be there for all the high points of its life. That’s why Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a little nervous right now. He has several family events coming up that he has to attend, he emphasizes.
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But there’s a family event of another sort that Junior would absolutely kick himself for missing, namely, the 100th Xfinity Series win in JR Motorsports’ history. JRM also has two prior wins when it fielded a truck in 2015-16.
JRM has 99 Xfinity wins to date heading into Saturday’s big race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Junior plans on being there, but right afterward, he’s off to a one-week family vacation in Florida, which could potentially prevent him from attending the next race on the Xfinity schedule: next Saturday at Iowa.
When Junior and wife Amy were making vacation plans back in early spring, they felt they had a significant cushion to plan a summer week away. But they obviously weren’t planning that their team would rack up 11 wins thus far this season among six drivers. And there’s still 13 races left.
Not that they’re complaining, mind you. This has been the second-most successful season wins-wise for JRM since its founding back in 2005. Their record is 15 wins in 2022.
With their daughters preparing for school, the Earnhardts have only a few off weeks left. That’s why they have no choice but to go to Florida next week. While sister and JRM co-owner Kelley Earnhardt Miller will be on hand for No. 100, Dale Jr. is starting to sweat that he’ll miss the milestone victory.
“I’m nervous ’cause there’s some weekends I can’t be there,” Junior said on this week’s Bless Your ‘Hardt podcast. “Don’t know how to feel about that.”
Amy replied, “I feel like you should be fine in the next few weeks to be there. The chances are high it’ll happen in the next few weeks.”
To which Junior replied, “I mean, Indy’s this weekend. If we do it there, if we do it this weekend, I’m there. Next weekend, we’re out of town. And then it’s like out of town, out of town, out of town. So, we’ll see.
“I think Watkins Glen (9th August), we’ve got a great shot with Connor (Zilisch) and we should have some firepower in the team that weekend. I can get there. We’re spending that week here at the beach, but I could shoot up there for the day to see that race.”
Amy replied that she doesn’t want her husband to miss No. 100, but Junior quipped, “No, I don’t want to miss it, but some of the stuff, I ain’t got a choice but to be at these other things. Not sure how to handle that. They’re going to be like, ‘Where’s he at? Why ain’t he here?'”
