“I’m Not Super Duper Religious”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. on His Superstitions With Peanuts, $50 Bills, and More

To some extent, we all have superstitions. But when it comes to athletes in particular, most of them have pretty strong, sometimes weird superstitions. So is the same true for Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

The NASAR Hall of Famer was recently asked by a fan whether he had any weird or race-day superstitions during his career. Earnhardt’s response contained both simple superstitions as well as those that could be considered somewhat spiritual in nature.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals his “traditional” superstitions

Responding to the question about his superstitions, Earnhardt Jr. said that his were “traditional.” He elaborated, “I didn’t want to eat peanuts around the racecar. Apparently, that’s bad luck, and I tried not to do it, wasn’t really a problem.”

“$50 bills were bad luck. Look, I love money but my dad was like, $50 bills are bad luck. If my dad says it, it’s true. If you’re carrying a $50 bill in your pocket, you’re not gonna win. You have bad luck.”

Along with that, he also touched upon the color green being “a big deal” even though he had plenty of that throughout his career. “My grandfather Ralph, I heard, was particular about that,” he claimed.

But these were the simple ones. Earnhardt also had a couple of them that were a little more serious than peanuts and $50 bills.

Junior wasn’t very superstitious but he did value a couple of things before a race

Although Junior didn’t deem it a superstition, he claimed that before every race, he always needed to have a prayer. “I’m not super duper religious or anything. I’m a Lutheran and we go to the church when we can. I’m kinda casual about it. It’s not a big huge thing,” he said.

Earnhardt claimed that when he would get in his racecar, he had this urge to say something to keep him safe, so he would say a prayer. “You’d be like, ‘Okay, I just want to have a good, safe race,'” he revealed. He claimed that getting the note from Stevie Waltrip before every race was one of those things. Waltrip would write Earnhardt Sr. a note before every race of his career. It would be a sticky note and he would stick it on his dashboard.

“Those were the things I needed to have happen,” Earnhardt added. He claimed that while he didn’t have things such as special underwear or helmets, he did put a lot of value in saying the prayer and having that note from Stevie Waltrip because if not for those two things, he’d feel vulnerable to being injured or prone to something bad happening to him.