Throughout his racing career in NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr. tasted success at various levels. Now in his retirement, he is still continuing to impress his fans with his one-off yearly runs in the Xfinity Series or the Late Models. But competing now, after his retirement, isn’t easy for Junior, considering the looming possibility of failing. Yet, thankfully for him, he has examples of drivers like Chase Elliott.
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Recently, while speaking about how he worked towards overcoming his anxiety on his podcast show, the Dale Jr. Download, Junior, used the example of the Hendrick Motorsports driver Elliott as a source of inspiration. He explained how Elliott’s mentality had given him the opportunity to think about failure in a different light.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals how Chase Elliott helped him with his nervousness
While speaking on his podcast, Junior revealed, “I think one thing that really helped me realize that I could go that I could get through that part of the things I decided it is watching Chase Elliott and (Chase) Briscoe and all these other drivers race other cars and things that maybe they are not familiar with right?”
He added, “Chase Elliott went to run in the Chili Bowl a couple of years ago. And I mean that is that is a long, the odds are long, right that he’s not going to make the main right, the odds are super… I mean, the guy’s a great driver.”
Junior admired Elliott’s willingness to step out of his comfort zone and try something new, even if it meant facing the possibility of failure. Furthermore, he had an epiphany after seeing the HMS driver’s willingness to take risks and try new things, even if it meant facing the possibility of failure.
He realized that he needed to have more fun and not be afraid of getting his “butt kicked.”
Despite getting inspired by Elliott, Junior still thinks about avoiding failure
Speaking further into the podcast, Junior also revealed how he had a strong desire to race late-model stocks for a long time, and he regretted not racing them more often over the past decade. He believes that he should have raced them more frequently and still feels that he should be racing them more often.
Junior added, “I think I still look back on what I’m doing now and think, ‘Man, I should have did more.’ But seeing those guys like Chase Elliott … I use him as an example. He’s only one I really think of. Seeing him go do something where he knows he might not do it well, and he’s probably not going to win.”
“But he’s fine with that … really encouraged me to just stop worrying about losing and not winning. Going into a late-model sock race and just getting your ass kicked. It’s okay…”
Finally, the NASCAR Hall of Famer acknowledged that even though he accepted the possibility of failure, he still found himself getting competitive and wanting to do well in races. He cited the recent Xfinity race at Bristol as an example of this, because despite his experience and acceptance of the risks, he still felt the drive to perform well and avoid failure.
