Dale Earnhardt Jr: “You gotta go out there and wreck that thing a few times.”
Before the $300 million. Dale Earnhardt Jr remember his 4 banger street hobby stock days.
Dale Earnhardt was asked via twitter: “I’m a NASCAR novice here. What is the first step to becoming a NASCAR driver? It looks cool.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr on getting started in racing
“Oh my gosh. He is a novice,” Dale Earnhardt Jr sets up his response via the Dale Jr Download.
“You can get ya a 4 cylinder out of the junkyard and go race in the 4 cylinder class at your local track. Or you can get in the street stocks. I would start there.”
“That’s going to cost you about $500 probably to go into that entry level. You’re not going to be very competitive. But, you don’t need to worry about spending a lot of money on your car. Try to learn how to drive it first.”
“Once you start to get an understand of how the car works and how to drive it and how to fix it. Then you can put a little money into performance.”
$500 for a street stock?
“Uh, I did,” Dale Earnhardt Jr recalls his first car.
“I went down to the junkyard. I talked a guy out of the car for $200. Then I rebuilt the motor. You can get a rebuild kit for $100 or something, just gaskets. I went down to the tire store, into the back of the tire store, where they keep used tires. Got a set of used tires for $20.”
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How did that go?
“I mean, we would run 4th to 10th. You could buy racing specific tires from the track. Those were about $80 a piece or something. Those were much faster, had a lot more grip.”
You’re not gunna go right out of the gate and win every damn race.
-Dale Earnhardt Jr
“Street tires are really hard. But, just to get yourself on the track. You’re not gunna go right out of the gate and win every damn race.”
You gotta go out there and wreck that thing a few times.
-Dale Earnhardt Jr
“Don’t waste all your money up front. You gotta go out there and wreck that thing a few times. You will. You gotta go out there and screw up and make mistakes. So, don’t spend all your money until feel like you’ve got the car figured out and how to drive it and understand what you got yourself into.”
“Like, so where you get your paycheck. Do you invest all of it in the stock market? Or do you just put a little bit of it in there? Just a little bit. That’s how you should invest in your racing career.”
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