Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ready to Offer Daniel Ricciardo a ‘NASCAR Opportunity’

Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on wanting to see Daniel Ricciardo race in NASCAR in the future.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ready to Offer Daniel Ricciardo a ‘NASCAR Opportunity’

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Daniel Ricciardo (Via IMAGO)

Since the introduction of the Next-Gen car, multiple champion drivers from other racing championship have tried their luck in NASCAR. That includes the likes of Formula One champions Kimi Raikkonen and Jeson Button. But the stock car racing fans, as well as legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. is yet to see the F1 racer they expected to come to NASCAR a long-time ago, Daniel Ricciardo.

The Austrain is currently retired from full-time racing, after loosing his Red Bull seat two year ago. There have been multiple rumors around the eight times Grand Prix champion making a NASCAR start since. Now JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Jr. has shared his thoughts on a potential start.

On his latest appearance on the SPEED with Harvick and Buxton podcast hosted by Kevin Harvick and Will Buxton, Hall of Famer Junior has asserted that the Aussie is young enough to figure out and race in NASCAR. He highlighted the love the ex-McLaren racer has for stock car racing and added that he is ready to give him an opportunity.

He’s still young. I would figure it out. …What a great personality. He loves NASCAR. I would love to give him an opportunity just to get a feel.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via SPEED with Harvick and Buxton.

The JRM boss Dale Earnhardt Jr. is right to feel Daniel Ricciardo loves the sport. He has talked about it many times, with the most recent comments coming in 2024. He explained how he grew up as a stock car racing fan and shared his dream of one day driving at Daytona.

There’s things I would like to try and experience, I don’t know, let’s say on a competitive level. It’s, you know, I grew up a fan of NASCAR, I’d love to drive a NASCAR [car]. I’d love to drive around Daytona [International Speedway], for example.

Daniel Ricciardo asserted.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves to have Max Verstappen in NASCAR

In the same conversation, the Hall of Famer also talked about wanting to see four times F1 world champion Max Versatappen in NASCAR. He pointed out the sim racing background of the Red Bull driver will give him an advantage in terms of acclimatizing easily to NASCAR of he ever comes here.

Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)
Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)

Max. The thing I like about Max is a sim racer. I feel like all sim racers feel like they are part of the same community. And so, he’s kind of like part of our community.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

Further talking about the point, he pointed out that the passion Verstappen has for racing will also be a major advantage. Getting sponsorship won’t be an issue as well, as there will be multiple partners that will love to have the Dutchman in USA.

He’s like us, he’s one of us when it comes down to it. He just loves to race. …I don’t think it’s such a huge leap that it might have been 15-20 years ago for somebody to come to F1, or IndyCar even, and be able to acclimate really well. But he’s a name that I think would be fun because he’s very young still, and he’s opinionated. He’ll tell you what he thinks.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

The comments from the veteran are rational and on point. It would be interesting who among Verstappen and Ricciardo will race in NASCAR first if they are given a good opportunity. The latter seems to be in the better position to do so.

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