Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR Cup Series career followed a narrow path in terms of allegiances, spanning just two teams across 19 seasons. He spent the opening nine years with Dale Earnhardt Inc., the organization built by his father, before making a career-defining move to Hendrick Motorsports, already one of the sport’s powerhouses with established stars such as Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
Advertisement
When Dale Jr. arrived in 2008, his signing sent shockwaves across the sport. Yet the most surprising one in those negotiations had nothing to do with money, bonuses, or contract length.
When Dale Jr. sat down with Rick Hendrick alongside his sister, Kelley Earnhardt, to iron out the details, he made it clear that financial terms were not what drove him. That stance alone caught Hendrick off guard. What followed left him even more stunned.
As Hendrick later recounted on Dale Jr.’s podcast, the driver dismissed salary concerns outright and instead outlined a short list of personal demands. Hendrick recalled thinking the requests might involve small cosmetic details. Instead, he heard something entirely different. “He said, ‘I don’t care about that (money)…’ He said, ‘I have a couple things that I want.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, here we go.'”
“‘I want the skirts on the car painted same color as the car.’ Took me about a second to say ‘What?’ Further elaborating, Hendrick told, “Oh, we had two sponsors and we go through everything with them,” Hendrick narrated.
He went on to reveal that even after sponsors signed off on the major elements of the deal, one condition remained non-negotiable. “Oh, there’s one more thing we got to have. Dale’s got to design the car.’ They said, ‘What?’ ‘That’s a deal breaker.’ And I’m sitting there, we’re looking at all this money, and we’re going to blow it over. He’s going to design the car.”
That unusual clause became part of the agreement, granting Dale Jr. creative control rarely seen at that level. Once at HMS, Dale Jr. took an active role in shaping his cars’ paint schemes, working closely with sponsors and designers. His fingerprints appeared on countless liveries, from everyday designs to special one-off themes.
He later confirmed his hands-on involvement in projects such as a Dark Knight Rises–inspired scheme for the 2012 Michigan race. During throwback weekends, he paid particular attention to honoring legends like Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker, dictating colors and decals to ensure authenticity.
On the track, however, the results did not mirror the promise of the partnership. Junior won 17 Cup races with Dale Earnhardt Inc., but managed only nine victories during his decade at Hendrick Motorsports. His debut season with the organization showed early promise, producing one win, 10 top-five finishes, and 16 top-10s.
Momentum stalled over the next three years, when he combined for just nine top-five finishes and 25 top-10s, never reaching double-digit top-10s in 2009 or 2010.
A resurgence finally arrived in 2012, when he snapped a four-year winless streak at Michigan and logged 20 top-10 finishes. He sustained that rebound with four wins in 2014 and three more in 2015.
Still, the uneven stretch that preceded those seasons could not be ignored, particularly when measured against the success he enjoyed with DEI. Despite the creative freedom and the sport’s best resources at his disposal, the Hendrick chapter remained a tale of unrealized expectations for Dale Jr. rather than dominance.
