That sounds like a great strategy to me.
During his time in the Cup Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won 26 NASCAR Cup Series victories, including two Daytona 500 wins, two Xfinity Series championships, and a record 15 consecutive NASCAR Most Popular Driver awards.
He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021, and has been a fan-favorite pretty much since he started driving professionally.
Of course, throughout that time, especially in the early 2000s, Jr. became a pretty big celebrity himself, appearing on shows like MTV Cribs, mainstream award shows and tons of other kinds of media, and he was, and still is, one of the sports most popular and recognizable figures.
He’s a great ambassador for racing, and of course, tons of celebrities wanted to meet him when he was a driver at the peak of his career, which meant he was often getting asked if he wanted to meet them. And on an episode of his Bless Your Hardt podcast, which he hosts with his wife Amy, he says there were times that he would get excited about who was there, but most of the time, he would just see them at the driver’s meeting or on the intro stage.
Amy pointed out that Jr. was often in a bad mood on race day, so that didn’t help, and it would have to be someone he was a really big fan of in order for him to have them come hang out on his bus before the race:
“Anytime a celebrity came, your PR person would come up and go, ‘Do you want to meet them? They will come by the bus. NASCAR will bring them over if you wanted to say hey.’ I mean, I didn’t entertain every one of them… I’m in a bad mood.
I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll see them at the intro stage.’ If I was a really big fan, I’d be like, ‘Hell yes, let’s meet.’ Because I want a personal, 10-minute conversation.
But if it was like, I like that they’re a celebrity, absolutely famous, it’s cool they’re here, but I’ll just check that box at the intro stage, ‘How are you doing? Thanks for coming,’ like everybody else will when they walk across the stage.”
He said he had even met some Presidents that have come to the track, but I’m sure over time, the allure of meeting celebrities becomes less and less. Of course, there’s a lot going on on race day too, so I’m sure most of the time it was more stressful than it was exciting to do a whole meet-and-greet thing too when you’re trying to prepare to go drive for hours on end.
Jr. has also appeared in quite a few big music videos, and honestly, I’m sure most of the celebrities probably wanted to meet him a lot more than he cared to meet them… which is just part of what makes him so cool.
Jr. has always come across as super down-to-earth and normal, and things like this only proved that he’s always been that way, even when he was the much bigger celebrity than some of the people who came to the track:
@blessyourhardt.podcast NASCAR Stars Met Celebs_ Did Drivers REALLY Meet Them_ #blessyourhardt #podcast #dating #situationship #amyearnhardt ♬ original sound – Bless Your Hardt Podcast
