I want to continue to be a part of the sport, and not just as an owner in the Nascar Xfinity Series. I want to be a valuable asset to the growth of the sport and continue to help raise the bar and raise the awareness of the sport and promote the sport as much as I can.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr.
For the longest time, I was just real nervous about privacy and people prying into my personal business.
You don't talk to Richard Petty unless he talks to you.
Orange is my favorite color overall.
I enjoy learning how to cook because I like to eat. Eating is good. Eating is fun.
To me, I feel completely, um, utterly normal. I do everything everybody else does.
I just didn't look at myself with a lot of confidence. I didn't think, 'Man I'm a great driver. Boy, just give me a shot.'
As a driver, it was easy to find the negative in things. But when I got out of the car, everything about the sport, my whole perception of just about everything in the sport, did a 180.
Death is a weird thing.
I've done everything I ever thought I would do. I've done more than I thought I was capable of doing.
I hate disappointing people and letting people down.
There was this guy I used to work with, and he listened to Patsy Cline all the time, so I liked that after a while.
As a race car driver, you kind of get stereotyped into, 'Man, you like country' - or you got to say you like country. I do like a lot of country. But I'm all over the board.
I can't remember ever racing without any pressure.
My role models weren't holding steering wheels and mashing gears on Sunday. They wore burgundy and gold with names like Art Monk and Darrell Green.
There is nothing like winning a race.
I was in therapy as a child and definitely think that therapy is a very useful tool.
All these tracks you have memories at, all of them, Daytona included.
I am proud of the Earnhardt name, but it don't stand alone. You know, it's part of the sport, with all those other historic people that have been a part of it, and you don't want people to forget the part you had in it and what you did and the contributions you made and the sacrifices you made.
I don't know of any other driver on the track that doesn't get hot under the collar.
If I don't like the car, I don't get excited about racing it.
I can cook anything. Anything. I'm good.
I never thought I would ever win a Daytona 500. I never thought we would sweep Bristol. I just never thought any of that stuff was going to happen or be possible.
I didn't think I was ever going to be a Cup driver. When I was a kid, before I started racing in the Xfinity Series, I thought that I was never going to get a chance, and then, if I did, I wasn't going to run well enough to maintain that opportunity and keep progressing.
There's broadcasters that make me enjoy what I'm seeing because of their energy and how they explain what's happening and paint that picture.
I'm sure it's the same whether you lost your parent at 25 or 45. When they die, the responsibility to do right by them and honor them becomes more important to you, because they're not here to tell you, 'Hey man, don't be doing that,' or, 'Yeah, you're making me proud, or you're not.'
I always make things worse than they are or create problems that aren't there. And going and doing some simple task becomes a problem. I start imagining problems that aren't there. What people are going to think, who's going to judge me and am I going to be good enough? Am I worthy?
People get surprised when they see you out buying a DVD at Best Buy like somebody else should be doing it for you or something! They're like, 'What are you doing your grocery shopping for?' Well, 'cause I'm starving!
My grandmother was a big Elvis fan, and I am, too, because she played Elvis, and she would keep me all the time when my dad was out of town.
I grew up around it. That was what my friends were listening to - some of my closest friends are big hip-hop fans.
My habit is to get real competitive and make racing probably more work than it is enjoyable, and I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I feel like there's pressure from the outside - it's probably not real, but it's something I imagine.
I get asked one question a lot: 'What celebrity encounter would render you starstruck?' The answer is simple - anyone who's ever strapped on a Redskins helmet, much less coached them to three Super Bowls.
Man, I was a troubled kid. I was going to get kicked out of a Christian school and got sent to military school for a year and a half, and I didn't really have much direction until I got the opportunity to drive race cars.
I've never wished I was anybody else.
That's something that is important to me, that people know me and understand me.
Every sport has a 'guy' that personifies what the sport is about and almost creates what the sport is on his own.
Regardless of how I act, somebody is going to criticize me one way or the other.
I just Google whatever the hell I want to cook, and I try to cook it by what they tell me to do. If it's not good, I don't eat it.
I'm competitive, man. Competitive.
I've been able to make a lot of money and live a lifestyle that I never dreamed of. And I've been able to provide for my family.
The 1979 Daytona 500 was awesome. It was almost like the first race that Ken Squier ever did. And so he was sort of introducing himself as well as the sport.
That's one thing that frustrates me is to hear people today say I don't have passion; my heart's not in it. Man, what the hell? You can't go to 38 races in 42 weeks with your heart out of it.
I look at my trophies and can't believe they're mine.
I went from thinking, 'I wonder if I can be a broadcaster. Will anybody give me a chance? Maybe I can get a shot at it,' to thinking, 'Man, I want to do this for a long time.'
Some people ain't approachable, and some people are.
Normally, on the rare chance that a celebrity comes to my property, I get real nervous.
Nothing will ever feel like winning a Daytona 500. I'm never going to do anything in broadcasting, probably anything in any other professional job that will feel like winning the Daytona 500.
I've always wanted to win a championship so badly.
In my eyes, Joe Gibbs could do no wrong.
Oh yeah, I've been in therapy in and out of my whole life.
