The Earnhardt family name in the world of NASCAR is like no other. If you’d ask a non-race fan who the Earnhardts are in stock car racing, they would probably know who you’re referring to, despite not having a keen interest in the sport. It is this legacy that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller have the responsibility of taking forward.
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After the Earnhardt name was established by their late father, a somewhat famous driver who went by the nickname ‘The Intimidator’, it was only fairly recently that Junior, his son from his first marriage and a racecar driver like him, felt he was taking the family name forward.
Children with famous fathers often struggle to make a name for themselves, losing their own identity in the aura created by their dads. However, Junior, as he stands not only in NASCAR circles but elsewhere as well, has made a name for himself.
While he does associate with what his father’s legacy has been, Earnhardt Jr. has also managed to take the same forward with a touch and flavor of his own. The 50-year-old elaborated on how being an Xfinity Series team owner helped him realize the same.
He spoke in depth about the foundation of JR Motorsports with his sister, Kelley, after leaving the ill-fated Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (DEI) team on a recent episode of Bussin’ With The Boys.
“JR Motorsports, the race team we have, we’ve ran there for, seems like 18 years, a long time. We’ve won 90 races, five championships. The idea was that me and her will be involved DEI, which was my dad’s race team. Our thought was that that would be what we would do all of our lives,” he said.
Despite what would have been a great path for Dale Jr. and his sister to follow in an alternate universe, circumstances took a turn for the worse after Earnhardt Sr. passed away.
Junior, who drove for DEI at the time, left the team courtesy of a certain Teresa Earnhardt, but that’s a story for another day. He went to drive for Rick Hendrick in the Cup Series while also fulfilling his dream as a team owner.
Parting with DEI and establishing JRM came as a blessing in disguise for Junior. He established a team which is known as one of the, if not the best, cultivators of top-level talent in NASCAR, something which he can call his own, something that his father did not help him build.
Junior also credits his sister Kelley to a great extent when it comes to the business side of the organization, while he himself makes the face of the team. With his unmatched credibility in the sport today and already a Daytona 500 entry under their belts, who knows, one day Dale Jr. might even go Cup Series racing with his team.
