The friendship and rivalry between Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. goes a long way back. Although, after all of these years, there is something that Junior was yet to share face-to-face with Kenseth. Speaking during a recent episode of his podcast, Junior told Kenseth how despite being friends they would often have this weird situation with each other.
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Furthermore, Junior elaborated on how he never went on to win the Cup Series champion, unlike Kenseth. He further mentioned the apparent envy he felt against Kenseth at times when he won races and championships over Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr explains how he measured himself against Matt Kenseth
Speaking to Kenseth on the podcast, Junior stated, “I was jealous, I was envious of you winning the Rookie of the Year title, and then I was envious of you winning the title, I never won a championship… I thought man if he’s gonna do it, I wanna be able to do it.”
“I didn’t measure myself against anyone else the way I did you”
@DaleJr | @mattkenseth
📺 WATCH HERE: https://t.co/EvETUN5HUo pic.twitter.com/2A6cTGtMvP— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) July 10, 2023
He added, “But I always enjoyed seeing you have success. So it was a weird situation because we were friends and I wanted to see you win, I wanted to see you do well. I didn’t measure myself against anyone else the way I did to you.”
“So like if you were running well, doing well, man what do I need to do that? The way you drove race cars, the way you approached your job. Appreciated it a lot because it was really classic.”
Matt Kenseth was named in NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers of all time list
The 2003 Cup Series champion, was recently named into the growing list of 75 greatest drivers ever to grace the sport of NASCAR. However, upon winning the great honor, Kenseth told the press that he did not believe that he deserved to be on that list.
Speaking ahead of the Slinger national where he won 8 times, Kenseth stated, “It’s an exclusive list. It doesn’t, again I’ll tell you the same thing I told you around the Hall of Fame stuff. I don’t really feel like I belong on that list. When you look at it, there’s a lot of people excluded on that list that. I think are better drivers than I ever was. ”
There is no doubt that his contributions to NASCAR as a race car driver are not to be forgotten for years to come. Although it’s good to see him being a humble man, acknowledging that there were people far better who did not make the list.
