Ever since he took his retirement from the NASCAR Cup Series, Dale Jr. has been a successful team owner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Dale Jr.’s team, JR Motorsports, is fairly successful in the second tier of NASCAR with four driver titles to its name since its inception. Since becoming an owner, for Dale Jr., most of his previous teams are now rivals. Incidentally, he made a wholesome remark recently about one of the rival teams.
Dale Jr. is in gratitude
Dale Jr. competed in NASCAR from 1999 to 2017. He debuted in his Cup Series career with his father’s team, Dale Earnhardt Inc. His father, Dale Earnhardt, competed mostly for Richard Childress Racing during his full-time Cup Series career. Due to his father’s presence in the NASCAR Cup Series, Dale Jr. was a regular on the tracks. He was able to get a firsthand experience of the day-to-day operations of a successful Cup Series team.
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In a post shared by NASCAR Classics on X, we get to witness Dale Jr. in his father’s garage taking a tour of the Richard Childress Racing paddock during the 1991 Cup Series.
Seeing the video, Dale Jr. couldn’t help but comment on it, saying, “Didn’t know how lucky I was to be around this RCR racing group back then.”
During his racing career, Dale Earnhardt Jr. never raced a full season for Richard Childress Racing. Unlike his father, Dale Jr. was among the staunch rivals of RCR. He was a driver for Hendrick Motorsports, giving Richard Childress a run for his money.
Still, there were some races that Dale Jr. ran with Richard Childress Racing in the Xfinity series. He competed with RCR, wearing his father’s No. 3 at the Daytona International Speedway twice, winning both races.
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Ultimately, even though he is a competitor of Richard Childress Racing, we can see how Dale Jr. still has a soft spot for the team that introduced him to NASCAR at an early age. His remark that he made is out of maturity, not rivalry.
During that time, things were different. Rivalries were hot. But now in hindsight, as all that competition doesn’t matter anymore, Junior is able to value and cherish those learnings he received from the RCR camp.
Funnily, he also took a light-hearted jab at his wife through the comment section of the post. Brad Keselowskicommented on the post talking about the race itself. To which Dale Jr. replied, “I’m unsure. But I do know that Amy won’t let me grow that mullet back.”
Speaking of Brad Keselowski, on the other hand, the RFK Racing driver seems to have landed himself in trouble over the past week…
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Brad Keselowski earns deep criticism from fans over controversial remark
“The sport’s going to miss him.”
This was all it took for Brad Keselowski to earn the tough reactions from fans worldwide. To put that into context, Keselowski was talking about the resignation of Steve Phelps from NASCAR. Quoting his personal relationship with the former NASCAR president, he was sure that Steve Phelps’ absence would trouble the sport.
But in doing so, he was in direct contrast with the narrative spread by the fans. Steve Phelps’ remarks completely ruined his reputation while NASCAR is facing multiple issues. As a result, Keselowski’s support for Phelps ended up triggering the fury of the fans.
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But Keselowski isn’t the only one who ended up on the wrong side of the fans. Recently, even Jeff Gordon commented about NASCAR’s future without Steve Phelps.
In a similar manner, he too earned various angry reactions from fans. While the team executives and drivers may think the sport is in an era of huge instability, NASCAR fans are not going to feel appeased with their comments. The entire community has united against Steve Phelps. In such a situation, any wrong comment can get a driver or team owner canceled overnight.
The post Dale Jr Defies NASCAR Rivalry Narratives With Surprising Richard Childress Remark appeared first on EssentiallySports.
