MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
PRE-SEASON MEDIA AVAILABILITY
CHARLOTTE MEDIA TOUR
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 25, 2017

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Media tour and discussed his return to the Cup Series, his recent marriage, and his expectations for the upcoming season and the remainder of his career. Full transcript:

MODERATOR INTRODUCTION: WELCOME. GLAD TO HAVE YOU.
“I’m excited to be here for media day, which is new for me this year. Usually you kind of tell everybody Daytona will get here when it gets here, but I’m excited for the season. It can’t get here fast enough. Really thankful to be back and be working, and can’t wait for the opportunity to test at Phoenix in a couple of days and then get on to Daytona and get on to work.”

WHO HAS A BETTER BEARD GAME GOING ON RIGHT NOW, YOU OR JIMMIE JOHNSON?
“Jimmie. He sent me a picture of him skiing and he said he was getting ready to knock this beard off and I said, ‘You better have that in Daytona because you get more drafting help.’ I said, ‘That’s a bad-ass beard and I would keep it if I were you.’ He’s hung onto it; I don’t know if he’s taken my advice or what. I’m certainly pro-beard, and if I’d known he was going to come so strong I would have worked on mine a little more. I certainly do envy what Jimmie’s got going on.”

YOUR TWO BIG EVENTS IN DECEMBER. CAN YOU COMPARE THE EMOTIONS OF GETTING APPROVED TO RACE AND GETTING MARRIED?
“The approved to race thing was a slow evolution and something that you could see coming and get physically and mentally prepared for it. To get approved to race is one thing but to decide to race is another. Mentally, you have to make the decision if you want to keep racing. And if you want to keep racing you have to go into it 100 percent. This is the top, elite series of motorsports in North America and if you’re going to be out there you can’t do it without 100 percent. I had to answer a lot of personal questions myself and just really buy in. All that was a big process and I’m really happy with what I’ve decided to do. But it wasn’t that emotional. Getting married has been incredible. I wish I would have figured this all out sooner. I’m frustrated with myself that I took so long to grow up because I have an amazing wife and she’s changed my life. She’s really helped me as a person to become better on all fronts – personally, and all my friendships with people and how I react to people and treat people. And, obviously, in my professional life she’s helped me as a driver. It’s been great. Just hoping to enjoy what’s left of my career, and hopefully I get to make the decisions on that myself as far as how much further I’ll race. Going to start a family, too, so have a lot of good things to look forward to. Really excited about my future.”

WHAT IS THE ONE THING NOT RACING THE LAST HALF OF LAST YEAR, HOW WAS THAT DETRIMENTAL TO WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO DO THIS YEAR?
“Being out of the car you hope you can jump back in the car and not miss a beat, but like I said this is the top series and any time you’re away you’re getting behind. I’m really anxious and curious where we shake up early in the season, how competitive we can be, what – if any – learning curve there is for me. We’ll figure all that out. I missed the camaraderie; that’s the one thing I’ll probably miss the most when I’m not racing is just the friendships and the inside the track. I have an awesome road crew, we’re all buddies, we all communicate every day. We use an app to be able to communicate and text each other as a group, so it’s a close-knit sort of family and I’m going to miss all that. It’s fun to be able to go as a team and succeed. Even when you don’t succeed, those are the guys you lean on. You sort of lift each other up, and I’m going to miss all that. That was something that was difficult to watch someone else do in your place. Certainly jealous of Jeff and Alex working with my guys. At the same time, I was happy for Alex and glad Jeff was available. You definitely were wishing it was you in there getting the work.”
COULD YOU TALK ABOUT THAT THIS (RACING) IS NOT SOMETHING TO TAKE FOR GRANTED.
“You do take your job for granted when you’re doing it every week. As a society, we get better and better at complaining. The drivers aren’t any different; we moan and complain about everything. But when you get a chance to step back and watch it … I got a chance to be at Dover and watch the drivers come in that morning for practice and it was an eye-opening experience. It was an out-of-body experience almost to watch all that happen. Looking at them and knowing that was me. I got to see the drivers from a different point of view and got to see the sport from a different point of view. Being out of the car made me anxious to get back in. To be honest, I’m happy to come back here and continue to compete. I got real close to not being able to compete and it being someone else’s decision whether I competed or not. People have asked me since I turned 40 when I would retire and all I wanted to do was make that choice myself. I don’t know when I’m going to stop racing, but I want to able to make that choice and not have it made for me. All that stuff really showed me how much I have going for me and how fun this really is. You can make it really difficult or you can enjoy it. This is an incredible position to be in and it’s an awesome sport, and driving the cars is fun. Doing the photo shoots, doing the commercials and talking to the media, all those things are fun. But you can make it not any fun if you want to. As human beings we have a tendency to do that. The grind, man, is so long. You’re doing it year after year after year, and it doesn’t seem like we had much of an off-season. You actually work harder in the off-season. People think you don’t do anything, you take off. But that’s when everybody knows you have time off so they’re like, ‘Hey, come do this appearance here or this photo shoot.’ We get a break, but just from the driving part. I can see how you get wound up and burned out a little bit. I’m certainly not feeling that way right now, and I’ll be much more self-aware down the road trying to remember what this is and what position I’m in and not take it for granted. It’s easy to do.”