DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Standing next to his team’s car before Thursday’s qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked at his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, in amazement.
“God dang,” he said to her before the invocation, “we’re really out here. We’re really out here.”
The wonder in his voice surprised Kelley because the 50-year-old Earnhardt has been here at NASCAR’s cathedral of speed since his youth. This 2.5-mile, high-banked track of drama and daring has witnessed some of his greatest accomplishments as a driver with his Daytona 500 victories in 2004 and ’14. This also was where his father died in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500.
But this week has been unlike any other time Earnhardt came here. He and his sister are Cup car owners.
Never before had JR Motorsports fielded an entry in NASCAR’s premier series. For the team to make its Cup debut in Sunday’s Daytona 500 would add to the family’s rich legacy.
Before Justin Allgaier secured a starting spot for JR Motorsports in NASCAR’s biggest race, the Earnhardts would go through a dizzying and draining range of emotions that reached crescendo in a tight, rocking embrace between Earnhardt, his sister and her husband when they were assured a spot in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
“I didn’t know exactly how badly I wanted to do this or wanted to be a part of something like this until we started going through it,” Earnhardt said.
What a journey it has been.
Family legacy
Kelley Earnhardt Miller texted an evite Tuesday for a spring gathering to a group chat that connects Earnhardt aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. soon replied.
I’m in my truck driving to the airport to head to Daytona. Jr Motorsports and (Hendrick Motorsports) are combining in an effort to write a new chapter in the legacy of the Earnhardt family. I hope we can get in this race and do everybody proud.
A flurry of well wishes followed, including this response:
We are already so proud of you, Kelley and JRM
Give Em Hell
One family member texted that the team haulers were arriving at Daytona International Speedway. Kelley, husband L.W. Miller and son Wyatt, who turns 13 Sunday, had driven that day from their North Carolina home and were in the competitor’s motorhome lot at the track.
Kelley ran out of their motorhome in her socks to catch the JR Motorsports hauler. With it among the last of the 45 trucks to enter the garage, she had time to return for her shoes.
As the team’s hauler turned into the garage entrance, Kelley waved while she recorded the historic moment on her phone.
#NASCAR … For the first time in its history @JRMotorsports is fielding a Cup car. Here is its hauler entering the Daytona 500 garage. pic.twitter.com/Amu6dz6LS8
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) February 12, 2025
Ten hours later, under the same full moon Kelley stood to watch the JR Motorsports hauler arrive, her brother entered the Cup garage. It was 6 a.m. ET Wednesday. He came to witness the team unloading the No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet. Earnhardt walked next to the car as the crew pushed it into its garage stall.
“I don’t want to miss a thing,” he told NBC Sports ahead of Daytona. “Wednesday is going to be a really incredible day, being able to hear them fire that car up, back out of the garage, pull out of the garage area and on to the race track for practice. And the anxiety, the tension, the nerves of hoping the car performs.”
It’s rare for some Cup car owners to be at the track most weekends, let alone when the garage opens an hour before sunrise.
“Most car owner are not thinking that this could be the one and only time they do that,” Earnhardt said of his exuberance. “Just in case that we never get back to that situation or that opportunity to enter a Cup race, I want to make sure there wasn’t anything about it that passed me by or I wasn’t able to experience.”
#NASCAR … First-time Cup car owner @DaleJr walks with the No. 40 JR Motorsports car in the Cup garage at Daytona. pic.twitter.com/CJd57N5MJS
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) February 12, 2025
He last had been a competitor in the Cup Series in 2017. While he’s remained connected to the garage, it’s different when you’re not behind the wheel.
“I miss all of that,” he said. “I miss that as a driver. Showing up at Daytona, how good is our car? I’ve been watching the guys put it together for three months. How are we going to qualify? How is it going to race?
“Standing on that grid, standing out there in that lineup for qualifying at Daytona, it’s just a special moment, waiting on your opportunity to go, waiting on your opportunity to climb in. It’s one of the great things about being a competitor, whether you’re the driver, crew chief or the car owner, you’re a competitor.
“I kind of miss, I miss the emotions you go through, the highs, the lows, the anxiety of performance, and will we make it? Will we get in? If we’re lucky enough, fortunate enough to qualify in on time, amazing. If not, then you have to reprogram your brain to go tackle the duel and I’m ready for all those challenges and mental gymnastics that you do.”
Why now? Why not sooner?
Kelley admits that when it comes to business, she’s willing to take more risks than her brother, but says they must agree on business decisions, “so we’re risk-adverse at the end of the day.”
Dale says his mindset changed when Isla, the first of his two daughters, was born in April 2018.
“Before I had kids, I used to joke that regardless of how fortunate I was financially, I was going to bounce my last check,” he told NBC Sports. “I was going to live my life and there wasn’t going to be nobody to leave anything behind to.
“As soon as I had kids, my mind instantly shifted toward everything that I’ve saved and earned is theirs. It’s not mine anymore.
“I don’t want to risk their inheritance. So if I bought a team and, heaven forbid, the values and things don’t work out like we hope, then I have taken their inheritance and risked it and lost it.
“How could I look them in the eye (and say), ‘You would be in this position but because of the choices I made now you’re in this position.’”
The alteration in his financial approach came at a critical time in terms of JR Motorsports’ Cup aspirations.
Three days before the 2018 Daytona 500 — about two months before Isla’s birth — Ron Devine put his race team, BK Racing, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to hold off a bank’s demands he repay more than $8 million in loans and accrued interest.
Later that summer, the trustee overseeing the team recommended that a bankruptcy judge approve selling the team and its charter, which guaranteed a spot in every race and provided a financial payment plan. The charters were still new in the sport, having been granted to teams in 2016.
Front Row Motorsports claimed the BK Racing charter and some equipment for $2.08 million.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. stands alone before his team’s No. 40 car, driven by Justin Allgaier, made its qualifying attempt at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 12, 2025.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. stands alone before his team’s No. 40 car, driven by Justin Allgaier, made its qualifying attempt at Daytona. (Photo by Dustin Long)
That there was little competition in the bidding showed the industry’s hesitancy toward spending much on a charter.
Things changed in December 2018 when Furniture Row Racing sold its charter — one of the more valuable charters at the time based on the formula for payments — for $6 million to what would become Spire Motorsports.
A new value had been placed on charters. Kelley began studying the issue more closely.
“When we sort of got serious about talking to people, and I started talking to Hendrick Motorsports and trying to learn as much as I could about what it took, then the charters are up between seven to the … $13 million or whatever the numbers were, and at that point you’re looking and you’re like then it’s a financial thing,” she told NBC Sports.
23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, purchased a charter from StarCom Racing for $13 million ahead of the 2022 season, setting the high mark. Prices would continue to climb. Spire Motorsports reportedly paid a record $40 million for Live Fast Motorsports’ charter in a deal announced in September 2023.
The high price leaves JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, which does not have a charter system.
The value for Cup charters is expected to keep rising. The new charter agreement, which began this year, will pay “approximately 50% of NASCAR’s media revenues” to teams, according to a court document from NASCAR. This season begins the first year of a seven-year Cup media rights deal NASCAR has with NBC, Fox, TNT and Prime Video for a reported $7.7 billion.
Although charter prices have increased exponentially in recent years, Earnhardt isn’t convinced the window has closed on being a full-time Cup car owner.
“I told Kelley, ‘OK we’ve got a car going into a Cup race,’” he said. “Who knows what idea this might spark in someone’s mind that’s out there that wants to be a partner of ours and comes in the door that we haven’t talked to yet and says, ‘Let’s do this.’ I’m willing to put some money in, for sure, but in the opportunities that we’ve had, it was too significant of an investment for me.
“But I would be, I guess I would be hopeful there may be some people that want to invest in a charter, considering that charters are going for $25-40 million now. I think there’s a day in the very near future where that charter is $100 million, $150 million. I do. I think they can go even beyond that, a decade, two decades down the road.”
The question is if Dale and Kelley will have one of those charters by then.
Disappointment, then hope
Jimmie Johnson saw his former Hendrick Motorsports teammate on pit road and gave Dale Earnhardt Jr. a hug before qualifying Wednesday night at Daytona.
While friends, they also are competitors, particularly on this night. Johnson, who is scheduled to run only two races this season, does not have a charter for his No. 84 car at Legacy Motor Club and needed to earn a spot in the Daytona 500 — just like Earnhardt’s car with Justin Allgaier driving it.
The cars of Johnson and Allgaier were among eight that were not guaranteed starting spots in Sunday’s 500. Martin Truex Jr.’s was another. Only two, however, would lock in spots with Wednesday night’s qualifying.
Truex was the fastest of those eight cars and secured a spot in the Daytona 500. Johnson was next on the speed chart, beating Allgaier by .08 seconds to claim the second opening.
Earnhardt shared his feelings on social media about 45 minutes after Johnson topped Allgaier’s lap.
Damn it woulda been nice to lock in tonight. But we get to come back tomorrow and race our way into the Daytona 500 in a dual. Living the dream.
There were still multiple avenues for Allgaier to make the Daytona 500 through the qualifying races the next night, but it took a bit of time for Earnhardt to process his disappointment.
“When we didn’t qualify (Wednesday) night, I was, I was hurt, I was heartbroken,” Earnhardt told NBC Sports on Thursday on his golf cart as he returned to his motorhome after doing his “Dale Jr. Download” show in the track’s fan zone.
“That was tough. It ain’t anybody’s fault. Something I wasn’t really good as a race car driver was stepping back and looking at it from a little bit of a wider point of view. There’s a lot of people that come down here that it don’t come easy. I signed up for this. There is a path forward. There’s a few routes forward.
“The problem I’m always having, and maybe lots of people deal with this, but I would not see the path forward (Thursday) because of the disappointment from (Wednesday) night. So I needed to take a little bit of time and go, ‘You know what? There is a world or universe where I’m not even here trying to do this with this team. I should be thankful that (Thursday) is another chance to get ourselves into that race.’
“I didn’t really know this or think this way a long time ago or during my racing career, but I do believe that if you have a bad attitude or expecting the worst, you can often affect that result just because of your attitude or approach. The best shot at doing this (Thursday) is to have the best attitude going forward.”
So Earnhardt looked ahead to what could be, instead of what was.
Why Daytona
Any other race on the NASCAR schedule for JR Motorsports to make its Cup debut likely wouldn’t have come with this much pressure. There likely won’t be more than four open cars at any other race this season, so there would be no fear of failing to qualify.
But there isn’t anything like Daytona. For a sport built around generations, Daytona has been the epicenter in the lives of the sport’s most famous families.
The Pettys won the Daytona 500 eight times — seven by Richard and one, the inaugural race, by his father, Lee. Richard’s son, Kyle, won the first race he entered, the 1979 ARCA race at Daytona. The 1961 qualifying races saw both Richard and Lee go over the fence in separate crashes. Richard suffered minor injuries. Lee was gravely injured. While Lee returned to run a few races, he never competed full-time again.
The Allisons enjoyed one of the most special moments a father and son could while racing. Bobby Allison won his third Daytona 500 in 1988 with his son Davey finishing second — the only time a father and son have finished first and second in this race. A crash a few months later at Pocono ended Bobby Allison’s career and robbed his memory of that Daytona 500 win. His son would win the 1992 Daytona 500.
For the Earnhardts, Daytona has offered the ultimate highs and lows. After 20 years of trying, Dale Earnhardt Sr. won the 1998 Daytona 500 and — in a scene likely to never be repeated — was greeted by pit crew members of most teams wanting to slap his hand and congratulate him as he slowly made his way to Victory Lane.
Earnhardt Sr. lost his life in a crash on the last lap three years later.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. memorably won the next Cup race there in July 2001 in one of the most electric scenes in the sport’s history as his victory was a form of catharsis for fans. Junior went on to win two Daytona 500s (2004 and 2014) before retiring.
“I knew that it wasn’t the track that took him, and I knew that he, wherever he was, he still felt the same about Daytona,” Earnhardt said of his father. “So I’ve embraced it. Him losing his life in this property brought this property closer to me. Now, that doesn’t work the same for other people and tragedy, but for me knowing I had to keep coming here, I made some peace with it and embraced the track and love it.”
There really was no other place for the debut of JR Motorsports as a Cup team after singer Chris Stapleton, a 10-time Grammy winner, reached out to his friend, Rick Hendrick, last July to inquire about sponsoring a car. Hendrick put Stapleton in touch with JR Motorsports.
“We thought about that as we were going through the process of could we pull this off for Daytona?” Kelley said. “And if we couldn’t pull it off for Daytona, where else would it make sense? We kept going back to, nothing’s as big as the Daytona 500, right? And I’m not talking about just for the exposure for the sponsor and all that.
“There is no greater race than the Daytona 500, I mean, it being our first race, it being the crowds that are there, the roar, everything that you feel when you go into Daytona.”
One last chance
With four laps left in Thursday night’s first qualifier, Justin Allgaier was in danger of not advancing to the Daytona 500 and needing a particular scenario in the second qualifier to make it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller sat atop the team’s pit box watching, their bodies rigid, their breaths shallow, waiting to see if all the work done since last summer — and all their hope — would be fulfilled.
On the final lap, Earnhardt pumped his fist and yelled. He stood and leaned forward as the cars came to the finish line.
Bubba Wallace won. Allgaier finished ninth, the highest-finishing non-chartered car, to claim a Daytona 500 starting position.
In that moment Thursday night, the love of the sport exploded into hugs, handshakes and even a sprint by Earnhardt to get to Allgaier and congratulate him while celebrating having a car in the Daytona 500.
It is the next step in the evolution of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“Now him being a car owner in the Daytona 500,” said NASCAR senior advisor Mike Helton, “I think is just another chapter of the Dale Jr. we’ve seen grow up in this sport to become the face of and the voice and such an ambassador for what his family has done for three or four generations now and then taking that responsibility very seriously.”
A few days earlier, Earnhardt told NBC Sports about what this effort meant.
“It’s something we don’t have to do,” he said. “It’s something you’re doing purely for the love. It’s something that you’re doing purely because you feel like it’s what you’re supposed to do.
“It’s like what your calling is and you’re doing it only out of the passion and love that you have for the sport of NASCAR and everything it represents.”
Thursday night, with so many to thank and so much to look forward to, the track’s lights shone down seemingly on one man.
Thinking of dad
As the masses encircle him Sunday, many wishing him good luck in his maiden race as a Cup car owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will take it all in.
He’ll look at the crowd on pit road and view the confluence of colors from 100,000 people in the stands that reach skyward. He’ll thrill in the roar of U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds as they fly their F-16 Fighting Falcons just above the venue at the end of the national anthem.
He’s seen it before, but this is different. Eighteen times he competed in the Daytona 500 — winning twice.
Earnhardt also gave an energetic command from pit road to fire engines for the 2018 race. He twirled the green flag like an expert in the flag stand when he started the 2020 Daytona 500.
Unlike those other times, he will have something else — someone else — on his mind Sunday.
“That will be so emotional,” he said of standing with his car on the grid before the start of the Daytona 500. “I’ll be honest — and I don’t say this very often — but it’ll absolutely be one of those moments where I will not be able to shake the idea or the thought of what my dad would think of what me and Kelley have done to get ourselves to this point.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr, sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller and her husband L.W. Miller in front of the first JR Motorsports Cup car before Thursday night’s qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr, sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller and her husband L.W. Miller in front of the first JR Motorsports Cup car before Thursday night’s qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Dustin Long)
