Latest news with #EarnhardtJr.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Earnhardt': Dale Jr.'s drive to race, receiving tough love from father early in career
'I wanted to race cars badly. Just as badly, I think, as my dad.' Episode 3 of the four-part 'Earnhardt' docuseries on Prime Video explores Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s start in racing and the challenges of earning his father's attention in the early portion of his career. Advertisement With racing constantly on his mind growing up, Earnhardt Jr. said he drew race cars often in school. However, his father and stepmother Teresa interpreted it as a different passion for Dale Jr. 'Dad and Teresa came home one day with a giant box of all these supplies, and they said, 'We thought maybe you'd want to go to art school. We were looking at this college down the road,' Earnhardt Jr. said. 'I was like, 'are you freaking out of your mind? I'm not going to art school.' What? Like, I'm not an art student. I'm not into art. I was so spun out. And I was like, 'damn it, you're Dale Earnhardt, and I want to race.' Help me race. What should I do in this moment to be getting closer to racing? Take all this art [expletive] out of here.' RELATED: Watch all four episodes of 'Earnhardt' on Prime Video As Earnhardt Jr. began racing late models locally, his father remained absent from the track with his son. Advertisement Dale Sr.'s friend, Hank Parker, revealed that Earnhardt said he didn't believe his son was cut out for racing. 'I was worried about Dale Jr. and he was green as grass,' Parker said. 'Didn't know a whole lot about racing. Dale Sr. told me one time. He said, 'I don't think that boy will ever be a race driver. He just ain't got it.\"' Earnhardt Jr.: 'If dad was sitting right here, one thing I'd want to ask him, did he ever see me race my late model car? I ran 159 races. I never saw him. He never said, 'Hey, I'm coming to your race this weekend.' He's never around the trailer. Never around the car. I don't know if he saw me.' As Dale Jr. made his way to the Xfinity Series, formerly known as the Busch Grand National Series, he had a rough few outings in his first starts. Advertisement After wrecking out in a race, Dale Jr. recalls an important moment in his relationship with his dad that stuck with him. 'The door flies open on this double-wide trailer I lived in. Boom, boom. I know immediately those are dad's footsteps,' Earnhardt Jr. said. 'He looks over at my buddies that are sitting over there, and he goes, 'get the [expletive] off my property. [They] ran out of the house and jumped in the cars and they drove out the driveway. The shoes are still sitting in the floor. 'He said, 'Come here.' And we walked out. I thought he was gonna whoop my ass. And he goes, 'Man, what are you doing?' I was like, 'I thought my racing career is over.' He's like, 'no, they're gonna fix that car. That's where you should be. You should be wanting to fix your car. Where is that? Where is that inside of you? What's missing in you that you thought to come over here and sit on your ass and feel sorry for yourself?' That was the one father-son talk that we had that sunk in.'
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Dale Jr. Says ‘Earnhardt' Docuseries Helped Him Let Go Of The Past
DARLINGTON, SC - SEPTEMBER 3: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Sr. pose for a photograph after ... More the Pepsi Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway on September 3, 2000 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by) When the name Earnhardt comes up in racing circles, it doesn't hang in the air—it drops like a hammer. Few legacies in American motorsports carry the same weight, and even fewer families are as synonymous with both triumph and tragedy. On May 22 and 29, the name takes center stage again as Earnhardt, a four-part docuseries, premieres on Prime Video. 'This is our version of the story,' Dale Earnhardt Jr. said ahead of the release. 'I hope it is a bit of a period at the end of the sentence for me personally. I can move away from the responsibility of protecting it and telling it and carrying it.' Co-executive produced by Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller, the docuseries offers an inside look at three generations of racing royalty—Ralph, Dale Sr., and Dale Jr.—and the legacy that shaped NASCAR. 'I was very thankful and appreciative that Prime wanted to do this,' Earnhardt Jr. said. 'That gave us the freedom and control to make it authentic. We got to help write the story. We got to tell the story. We got to give them the content and help them piece it together.' The project was born out of timing and opportunity, not ego. 'I didn't pursue this,' he added. 'I didn't pitch this. I didn't go to Prime and say, 'Hey, I want to tell this story.' I didn't know that I was at that place in my life. I'm not writing a book. I'm not trying to do some retrospective or anything. They came to us and they said, 'Hey, we'd like to tell this story, and we think now is a good time.' And so that opened the door.' CHARLOTTE, NC - JUNE 13: Family members including sister Kelly Earnhardt Elledge (R) and mother ... More Brenda Johnson(C) listen as Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, announces that he will drive for Hendrick Motorsports next season during a news conference at JR Motorsports June 13, 2007 in Mooresville, North Carolina. (Photo by) As for how involved the siblings were in shaping the final product? Deeply. 'We saw the rough cut for episode one and Kelley and I had a lot of notes,' Earnhardt Jr. said. 'We had several phone calls with Prime, their team, and the production company and we wanted to be careful not to get too in the weeds but we wanted to say, 'That's not exactly right,' or, 'That's not accurate,' or, 'That didn't happen.' You want to be careful not to get in there and try to produce the damn thing, but you also want to make sure they're not putting out misinformation or something that's not accurate.' Kelley Earnhardt Miller, a respected business leader in the NASCAR world and co-owner of JR Motorsports, echoed that sentiment. 'I think there's so many people that love Dad and love Dale and us,' she said. 'I want them to know the story. I want them to know our family. I want them to know our dynamics. I want them to know our journey and where we've been.' And it's not just about where they've been—but where they are now. 'You get to this point in life where you're like, 'Man, I've learned so much and I feel like I'm finally a better person,' and then you want to tell people that,' she continued. 'You want to show people that. You want to explain that to people because of the growth and the maturity and the understanding and all of those things that have come from all the experiences that you've had.' MARTINSVILLE, VA - SEPTEMBER 28: Dale Earnhardt sits in his hauler rig clocking some of the time ... More trials prior to race day on September 28, 1980 in Martinsville, Virginia. Earnhardt went on to win the Old Dominion 500, his fifth career NASCAR Cup win. (Photo by ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images) The series doesn't sanitize the family's past, nor does it glamorize it. Instead, it digs in—especially around the complex dynamic between Dale Jr. and his father. 'It's heavy,' Dale Jr. admitted. 'It was difficult to watch, difficult to hear, difficult to go through. It brought up a lot of emotions, a lot of feelings that you thought you had already worked through. But it's healing.' The docuseries also uncovers lesser-known truths about the Earnhardt legacy, including the relationship between Dale Sr. and his father, Ralph Earnhardt. 'I always thought my grandfather Ralph was a hardass and a tough guy,' Earnhardt Jr. said. 'And he may have been. But there's a part in the doc that tells the story of Dad taking all of his trophies to Ralph's shop and throwing them in the trash, and Ralph getting them back out and cleaning them and putting them back on the shelf. That don't sound like a hardass. That sounds like a guy that really loves his son and is proud of him.' Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley are both parents now and watching the story of their family play out on screen was unexpectedly emotional. Earnhardt is produced by Imagine Documentaries, Everyone Else, and NASCAR Studios, in association ... More with Dirty Mo Media. The series is directed by Joshua Altman and executive produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Sara Bernstein, Christopher St. John, and Justin Wilkes of Imagine Documentaries; Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin of Everyone Else; and Tim Clark and John Dahl of NASCAR Studios. 'I saw my kids in the stands,' Earnhardt Jr. said of one scene. 'I remember when I saw that, I thought, 'That's me. That was me in 1979 in the infield in Daytona watching Dad win his 125.' So that was kind of wild to me. The circle of life.' As for what they hope fans take away from Earnhardt, perhaps Kelley said it best: 'It was really important to me to tell our story and for our voice to be in it. We were never asked. We were never asked to tell it. We were never asked to be a part of it. So when the opportunity came up, I wanted us to be a part of it.' And as for the lasting legacy of Dale Earnhardt Sr.? 'I think I want people to know that Dale Earnhardt is the reason why the sport is where it is today,' she said. 'He brought a fanbase and people to this sport that were unheard of, and that was unmatched.'
Newsweek
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Newsweek
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shocked by $50M NASCAR Cost: "Hard for Me to Believe"
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims that the version of the sport he once knew and grew up with has gone. Earnhardt Jr. has noted the staggering cost behind fielding a car in the Cup Series, which he explains starts at approximately $50 million to get the charter, arguing that it has "become this place where only people with that kind of money can play." During an appearance on the Harvick Happy Hour podcast (below), Earnhardt Jr. explained: "I have been around long enough to remember that if you and I just woke up one day and said, 'Man, we're going to enter a Cup car in any race we want,' we can go find us a car, find us a driver, get all the parts and go do it, right? Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks onstage as SiriusXM and Dirty Mo Media broadcast from Daytona Speedway for the 2025 Daytona 500 on February 13, 2025 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks onstage as SiriusXM and Dirty Mo Media broadcast from Daytona Speedway for the 2025 Daytona 500 on February 13, 2025 in Daytona Beach, SiriusXM "Now, there's some couple hoops. You've got to get licensed and got to enter the car, pay the money, the entry fee, all that good stuff. But it was pretty much an understandable challenge. "Today, to just get out there and compete, you need that $50 million charter, and that charter is going to be $100 million and $150 million and $200 million — it's going to go to the moon over the next several years. "It was a good time to buy it 10 years ago. I regret that I didn't. But it's become this place where only people with that kind of money can play." Claiming that it is "hard" for him to believe the changes, Earnhardt Jr. continued: "The world, the NASCAR that I knew, in terms of just being able to field the car and go race, doesn't exist anymore. That's hard for me to just believe, that we're in that — for me to go run an open car isn't realistic. It's not realistic for anybody to do it every single week." Despite this, the 50-year-old former driver acknowledges that this is a great position for the sport to be in. He concluded: "But while that is tough for me to stomach, it is incredibly great for the current people that are involved in the sport. Great for NASCAR, great for the France family, great for the owners and teams that have those charters that are appreciating year after year, hour after hour. "They're just going up. But for somebody who's trying to get in? You can't play unless you got a big entity behind you. Somebody with real cash."
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
What to Expect from the Earnhardt Documentary Series
Some drivers won more races. Some drivers won more Daytona 500s. Some drivers led more laps. But it can be argued that no NASCAR driver reached the peaks of fan love and adoration owned by Dale Earnhardt Sr., a seven-time Cup Series champion who rode in from a small mill town and became an American idol and icon. Earnhardt's life and times will be examined in 'Earnhardt,' a four-part documentary series scheduled for Amazon Prime beginning May 22. Although Earnhardt's extraordinary career and his impact on auto racing both in life and death have been picked apart by numerous media outlets, the producers of 'Earnhardt' promise a new and more penetrating look. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister, Kelly Earnhardt Miller, helped bring the series to life. Earnhardt's widow, Teresa, who has had a difficult relationship with her stepchildren, is among those interviewed. What was it about Earnhardt that lifted him to a level of extreme superstardom not often reached by athletes? 'He tapped into the thing that made him become like a superhero to a lot of people,' said Earnhardt Jr. 'He was like Elvis, you know, with the fandom. He was beyond this world to a lot of people. 'He was a John Wayne figure who just kind of transcended the man and the person that we knew. Fans of his thought he was indestructible and bulletproof and couldn't do anything wrong. He was this larger-than-life otherworldly thing. And, so, they worshipped him. You know, it was insane.' Earnhardt's popularity led to massive T-shirt and souvenir sales, to fans having his image tattooed on their bodies and to at least one individual requesting that Earnhardt drive with his ashes in the car. Earnhardt Jr. said he thought he had a firm grasp on his father's place in the sport during the elder Earnhardt's driving career. 'But I didn't, honestly, know how big an impact he had until he passed away,' he said. 'In our little industry, he was massive, but, when he passed away … people were talking about him that I never even thought about them knowing who he was.' Earnhardt Jr. and Kelly grew up with a father who also was a sports hero, and they have talked often over the years about their childhoods being less than perfect and how their relationship with their dad wasn't always peaches and cream. 'We knew him as a real person who was a good dad and a tough dad and not so good dad sometimes—you know, with all these human imperfections,' Earnhardt Jr. said. 'But there was this large group of people who thought he was godlike and just perfect. I think that contrast will come through in the show.' Miller said her three children gained insight into their grandfather from watching the series. 'My kids really didn't understand the relationship that I had with my dad,' she said. 'You can talk about people all day long and share stories, but until they see something in the real, when I see my dad's mannerisms and when I see my dad speak, so much more comes back for me.' The series includes interviews with Kyle Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Richard Childress, Martha Earnhardt (Dale's mother), Jeff Gordon, and many others.
USA Today
04-04-2025
- Automotive
- USA Today
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. resolve trademark dispute over the No. 8
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. resolve trademark dispute over the No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced Friday that he has secured the right to use a stylized version of No. 8, resolving a dispute with Lamar Jackson Hours after it was announced that Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson was disputing Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s trademark claim of No. 8, the situation has been resolved. The NASCAR legend announced Friday on social media that he has secured the right to use a stylized version of No. 8 and will abandon the original No. 8 logo used by Earnhardt's JR Motorsports. The decision comes two days after Jackson's attorneys filed a notice of opposition Wednesday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, saying Earnhardt Jr.'s claim to the number would conflict with his 'Era 8' brand — which covers a variety of bags as well as 'bottoms as clothing, footwear, headwear, tops as clothing (and) undergarments.' Jackson, who has worn No. 8 since winning a Heisman Trophy at Louisville, previously registered the trademark "ERA 8 by Lamar Jackson." The two-time MVP believes he's the most recognizable No. 8. Just last year, Jackson challenged a trademark claim from Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman to put 'EIGHT' on merchandise. According to The Athletic, Teresa Earnhardt, the wife of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., let the rights expire without renewing them. That prompted Earnhardt Jr. to claim his old familiar No. 8, which he continues to race in short-track late-model races. That particular No. 8, with a font so associated with Earnhardt Jr., is not being challenged by Jackson. A second No. 8, also slanted but in a different font, is the one Jackson's filing said would lead purchasers to 'mistakenly believe the products (Earnhardt Jr.) offers under the mark 8 are related to the products and services provided by (Jackson).' Trademarking a numeral is a tricky legal issue because several famous athletes have worn No. 8 in addition to Aikman and Jackson. The list includes another Baltimore icon in Orioles legend Cal Ripken and Kobe Bryant, Carl Yastrzemski, Earnhardt Jr., and Steve Young, who Aikman referenced in his call to make peace.
