USA TODAY International Edition
Dale Jr. making turn to racing TV
About to make his debut for NBC, ex-NASCAR driver is also a new father
CONCORD, N.C. – The middle of the year will be manic for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who since the turn of the century has been the axis upon which NASCAR has turned.
Now his world is hurtling toward a new crossroads.
This is Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2.0.
He is none of the things he used to be — a full-time racer, an accomplished partyer, a bachelor who started fires in thousands of female hearts.
Earnhardt became a father for the first time when his wife, Amy, gave birth to a daughter, Isla Rose, on Monday. The couple announced the news Tuesday.
And Earnhardt will soon become the focal point of a major television network’s key motor sports property. Now he is more about nursery furnishings than bar supplies, more about microphones and headsets than driving gloves, more about watching drafting than practicing it.
At 43, he no longer carries the burden of trying to win for one of stock car racing’s leading teams.
He is ready for Chapter Two.
In late June and early July, Earnhardt will join NBC Sports’ NASCAR booth as an analyst as the network begins coverage of the second half of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season at Chicagoland Speedway.
It’s a new Junior. The remainder of 2018 will be like a new frontier for him.
“I’m excited about being a father,” Earnhardt told USA TODAY. “I’m 43 years old. I had a wild, good time in my 20s and 30s and did a lot of crazy things, met so many people and went so many places.
“I just feel like I got everything I could out of the well, so I’m good to go into this change and see what being a father is like.”
To add to the rush of the Year of Junior, Earnhardt has a book scheduled to go on sale in October. Titled Racing To
The Finish: My Story, the book offers new details on his struggles with concussions and his decision to stop racing, Earnhardt said. The book is co-written by ESPN’s Ryan McGee.
As for the business side of life, Earnhardt said he got a clear vision of what that might be like when he worked races as an analyst while recovering from concussion issues in 2016.
“I never got any real idea what I’d do after I quit driving until I got a chance to get in the booth,” he said. “I thought it would be fun, and when I went in there I didn’t want to leave. I’d leave the booth on a cloud.
“I always thought I was a fan. Then I realized I was a superfan. It checked all the boxes for me. This is it. This is what I want to do. Luckily, there was some interest from the network.”
Interest, indeed. Earnhardt is almost certain to take on star status for NBC quickly. For most of his driving career, particularly in the final years as he battled health issues and faced questions about performance, he was the sport’s best interview, answering questions with honesty and a breadth of perspective rarely seen in his contemporaries.
If that verve can be translated to live television, NBC will have a winner.
On a recent production day at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where a crew of 30 gathered to record an NBC video marketing Junior’s switch from the cockpit to the broadcast booth, he moved with seeming ease from one scene to the next. These shoots involve numerous mind-numbing takes of the same action, but Earnhardt was the consummate professional through the four hours.
“It’s such a delight to work with Dale,” said Joseph Lee, the NBC Sports Group senior vice president of Brand and Content Services. “He’s such a relatable guy. There’s something about him that is very inviting, very charming. He’s just a genuine person.
“I hope, and I’m sure, that that will translate to the audience.”
Earnhardt admitted battling nerves about being in such a spotlighted position in television. He had questions about how he would interact with others in the booth (anchor Rick Allen and analysts Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton) and whether the atmosphere might be competitive. Additionally, he said he was concerned about crashing Burton’s party. Burton joined NBC as “the driver” in the booth in 2015.
“I was really nervous about how Jeff would feel about me coming in there as another driver,” Earnhardt said. “He did this really cool thing. He called me before I had made the decision (to sign with NBC). He said I’ve heard you have some apprehension about how you would fit in. He said, ‘I really want you to come here and be part of the team. I’m excited about it. We would do some great things.’ ”
Earnhardt said he no longer has concerns about competition for airtime in the booth.
“All I’ve known is the competition in the garage,” he said. “There’s envy, and there’s ego. I didn’t know if it would be the same, but everybody has been embracing me and making me feel really comfortable.”
Soon comes the hard part — analyzing (and occasionally criticizing) the actions and decisions of drivers he formerly raced against.
It’s a part of the job that can make for uncomfortable moments, as Letarte, formerly Junior’s crew chief, discovered.
“Early on, I tried to be a little polite,” Letarte said. “But I learned that people are still unhappy with you if you kind of halfway give the answer. I’ve learned the chin-high fastball is better because you’re going to have to defend what you say anyway. I learned early on that I work for the fans, not the competitors.
“Dale is the same way. When Jimmie Johnson drives over his head and hooks somebody in a corner somewhere one day, I have no doubt he will call Jimmie out, and I think that will be the most difficult thing.”
Earnhardt said he’s ready for the challenge.
“Everyone has told me that the drivers are going to call you and text you and say they’re mad about what you said,” he said. “They told me not to say anything that I can’t say to their face. I think that’s a pretty good rule of thumb.”
Soon, he’ll take that confidence into new territory. And perhaps carry a baby photo.