Dale Earnhardt Jr., a veteran of the NASCAR world for nearly three decades, is well-versed in the dynamics of sponsorships, campaigns, advertisements, and promotional shoots for sponsors involved in the sport. While Dale navigates his media responsibilities and commitments with seasoned ease, his wife, Amy Earnhardt, admits she doesn’t find it as effortless.
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During a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download’s Ask Jr. segment, Junior’s co-host Andrew Kurland inquired about Amy’s experience participating in commercial shoots alongside Dale. Amy opened up about her trepidations, confessing, “I’m always very nervous doing anything like that. It’s easier when Dale is with me because he’s a supersonic Pro and knows what he’s doing and he makes me feel more comfortable.”
Further elaborating, Amy added, “Over the years it’s gotten a little easier. But he knows what to expect from me too, and what to tell me as he knows I’m going to get nervous.”
“I try to have fun with it and not get so in my head about the seriousness of it because I don’t know where it’s going or who’s going to see it and that freaks me out. Dale doesn’t mind that at all and he’s used to that because he’s been doing it his entire life,” concluded Amy.
She shared that the most valuable advice Dale Jr. ever gave her about participating in commercial shoots and interviews was to be herself. The 42-year-old revealed that Dale Jr. has a knack for keeping the atmosphere light during shoots; he consistently makes her laugh and advises her not to memorize the entire script in one go, but rather to take it piece by piece. This approach helps her feel more at ease and natural in front of the camera.
How does Dale Jr. cope with the shooting stress?
As easy as it may sound coming from the former NASCAR driver now, even Dale Jr. was initially intimidated by the attention a driver gets during his career. He admitted to initially feeling the heat under the studio lights, a nervousness born from the desire to deliver perfection in each take.
Despite his motorsports pedigree and having witnessed his father’s ease in front of the camera, Dale Jr. experienced bouts of stage fright himself. He shared that overcoming this felling wasn’t about building confidence but finding a level of comfort where he could be himself, accepting that “good enough” is sometimes just that.
He reflected, “It takes a while to get that kind of, it’s not confidence. It’s kind of like, it takes a while to get that comfortable to where you’re like yeah this isn’t the end of the world, this isn’t, you know, this isn’t a make or break it kind of thing.”
Despite his initial reservations, the former Hendrick Motorsports driver today owns one of the biggest and most popular media outlets providing fans with NASCAR content, Dirty Mo Media.
