Earnhardt rises as NASCAR’s conscience in farewell season
DOVER, DEL. — Retirement Dale has been Blunt Dale. As his final season ticks away, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has grabbed a bullhorn and demanded change — in 140-character bursts, on his podcast and through the media — on matters big and small in NASCAR.
He referenced John F. Kennedy in a tweet and was the first driver to take a stand on NASCAR’s place in the national anthem debate. He angered fellow veteran drivers when he suggested they may have to accept pay cuts. And he chided NASCAR for allowing drivers to blow out their tires in victory celebrations and for parking drivers on pit road during an entire practice.
Earnhardt stands up for NASCAR — and isn’t shy about telling the sanctioning body when it needs to stand down.
Oh, and it’s not over in seven weeks after he is done racing.
He is headed to the broadcast booth and will join NBC Sports Group’s coverage of stock car racing next year. Junior unleashed with a live mic for 20 Cup races next season should make for must-see TV for race fans.
Worried about sponsors or alienating a dwindling fan base, most drivers don’t have the desire or clout to speak out on much more than if the car felt loose or tight headed into a turn.
Not Earnhardt. He opines on the sport each week on his “Dale Jr Download” podcast, and on his latest episode, he took aim at the “same tired stigma” NASCAR has faced over its racial and political overtones. When two race team owners threatened to fire employees who refused to stand for the national anthem, Earnhardt, who has 26 career victories, including the 2004 and 2014 Daytona 500, said he refused to judge athletes who take a knee in protest.
“I don’t always claim to be right,” Earnhardt said, “but I think in transparency in conversation and compassion you can learn from others. There is only one way to sort of do that and that is by communication and sharing. I have always sort of been eager in a sense to know more and to learn more and to try to understand both sides.”
Earnhardt’s farewell season went off the rails early and he’ll end his career without a Cup championship. He hasn’t won this season and is 22nd in the standings headed into Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway.
But the disappointment on the track hasn’t squelched his candor on the issues that affect the sport.
Sure, when he said this summer that veteran drivers would continue to get squeezed out of rides for younger, cheaper drivers if they didn’t accept pay cuts, he got a rare rebuke from former Cup champions Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.
Otherwise, Earnhardt rolls on, perhaps hopeful he can exert some influence to change policy or even the way people think about issues that matter.
“I have just always been pretty transparent,” he said.
Of late, Earnhardt has spoken out on: the national anthem, blown tires, parked drivers and driver salaries.
“Drivers are having to sort of understand that change is coming down the pike,’’ he said. “If it hasn’t happened to them yet, it’s going to happen to them. And the young guys, they don’t know any better. They want to race and they’re taking whatever they can get. That’s a good change for the owners.”