Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits that he was ‘jealous and envious’ of Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth won the Cup Rookie of the Year award beating Dale Jr. in 2000 despite the latter having more wins.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits that he was ‘jealous and envious’ of Matt Kenseth

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth (Credits: pintrest)

NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth are among the most respected and widely admired drivers in sports history. They have achieved success on and off that track, which a few elite drivers top. Both were good friends off the track and respectful rivals on the track when they were fighting each other in the Cup series.

Both drivers made their Cup debut in the same year, 2001. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was driving the No:9 Chevy of Dale Earnhardt, Inc., while Kenseth was driving the No:17 Ford of Roush Racing. Kenseth won his first-ever Cup race that season in the form of the Coca-Cola 600 and finished with 10 top 10s. Dale Jr. won twice (Richmond and Texas). Kenseth was awarded the Rookie of the Year award after he completed P14 in the championship, while Dale Jr. was P16.

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The Ford driver went on to win the Cup title in his third year by scoring just one win and being superiorly consistent the whole season. He was the last champion before the playoff era.  Dale Jr. never won the Cup title; the closer he came was the P3 in the 2003 season. And recently, in his Dale Jr. Download podcast, he confessed to Kenseth that he was envious of his success because he couldn’t do the same.

He said in Dae Jr. download podcast, “I was jealous, I was envious of you winning the Rookie of the Year title, and then I was envious of you winning the title, I never won a championship… I thought, man, if he’s gonna do it, I wanna be able to do it.” Dale Jr. was convinced that if his friend could do it, he could do the same, which led to him having such feelings.

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Matt Kenseth is the only driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. compared himself with

Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Credits: NASCAR.com)

Dale Jr admitted that he had a weird feeling every time seeing his friend Kenseth accomplishing new feats. The richest NASCAR driver of all time confessed that Matt Kenseth was the only driver he measured himself against. He added that he always appreciated the dedication and work of Kenseth behind the wheel.

“But I always enjoyed seeing you have success. So it was a weird situation because we were friends and I wanted to see you win, I wanted to see you do well. I didn’t measure myself against anyone else the way I did to you,” Dale Jr. said.

“So like if you were running well, doing well, man what do I need to do that? The way you drove race cars, the way you approached your job. Appreciated it a lot because it was really classic,” Dale Jr. added.

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