Dale Earnhardt Jr. Exposes the “Leading Mindset” of His Racing Family

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on the mindset that controls the Earnhardt family racing business.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Exposes the “Leading Mindset” of His Racing Family

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (via Imago)

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NASCAR is a family sport and there are a few that has given more to the sport that the Earnhardt’s. Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and son Dale Earnhardt Jr. are two of the biggest, as well as most culturally significant figures the sports has ever seen. The family is still giving back to the sport with their team JR Motorsports, as well as media gigs, under leadership of Junior and sister Kelly Earnhardt Miller.

In the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, the Hall of Famer talked about JRM’s 2026 Daytona 500 plans. In this discussion, Dale Earnhardt Jr. pointed out that racing for the sake of racing, instead of money, have been their leading mindset and admitted that to make a small fortune in racing, one has start with a big investment.

That mentality has always been the leading mindset when you look at the books, when you look at the money spent. Everybody’s always said you wanna make a small fortune in racing, start with a large one.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.

The veteran pointed out that Dale Sr. made a fortune racing in NASCAR not by looking at profits before race events, but investing in machines and being passionate. He highlighted how they were racing $80K cars for $20K reward. It’s almost same now as well as JRM is racing $150-200K car for $200K-$215K reward.

I mean, my dad made money as a driver but as an owner in this sport, I don’t know that you looked at it and went, ‘I’m gonna profit here.’ When he ran his own cars, drove his own Busch cars, those were passion projects. He’s gonna spend $80,000 and race for $20,000.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

They were able to sustain their business, by securing funding from their partners and sponsors, with the stardom the Earnhardt’s enjoyed playing a significant role in it. The teams are finding it hard to find sponsors unlike the past and still it’s the passion for the sport that is making them race in NASCAR.

That’s how it was, and you were lucky back then to find the funding and the partnerships and sponsors that could make up for the deficit. That has all gone away. Corporate America has withdrawn a little bit some of their financial support compared to years ago, so it’s much harder for teams to find a way to cover that deficit. But we race, we wanna go because we wanna race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asserted.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. got an idea for their 2026 Daytona 500 campaign from Kevin Harvick

While plaining their 2026 Daytona 500 entry, Dale Jr.’s team came up with the Hell Yeah campaign, which wasn’t as exciting as they expected. Then they heard Kevin Harvick’s “we race” comment on his podcast and that resonated with them as it was something Kelly Earnhardt Miller, co-owner of the team, always said.

Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)

We’re gonna have this Hell Yeah campaign, commercials and all this stuff leading up to the Daytona 500.’ A lot of people weren’t really that excited about it… Kevin Harvick was on his show, and he was talking about the sport, and he said, ‘We race.’ And I thought, and a lot of other people commented as well, there’s your tagline. And Kelley says that — we race, we’re racers, we wanna race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

The comments from the Hall of Famer shows the passion and dedication the racing family has for NASCAR, how they race because they want to race and not because they want to grow their wealth.  It would be interesting to see how the latest ventures of the family associated with racing is going to playout in the coming years.

Also Read: Kevin Harvick Declares Jimmie Johnson’s NASCAR Legacy Is “Overlooked”