Dale Earnhardt Jr. "still at the table" for JRM charter addition talks, but cautious on finances

NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 - Practice
NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 - Practice

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently shed light on why he wasn't entering the NASCAR Cup Series as an owner. Speaking on the Dale Jr. Download, the Hall of Famer shared the major and the minor reasons as to why he refrained from taking his team to compete at the highest level in the sport.

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On the latest episode of his podcast, Junior was asked why he wasn't getting into the Cup Series now that there were four charters available on the market after SHR's exit announcement.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. claimed charters have become "too expensive." He described that if one were to take $15 million or $20 million and invest in the charters, they'd stand a chance to make a lot of profit as he predicts the charter's value to go from $100 million to $150 million or maybe "way more" in the future.

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Earnhardt mentioned how NFL teams like the Panthers and Washington Commanders became more valuable over time after they were sold, something he expects to happen with charters in NASCAR too, only on a smaller scale. Junior claimed it'd be because of the attractive business model that would come with the new charter agreement.

Having said that, he explained why he doesn't want to park with his money to invest in NASCAR Cup charter.

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"If I park that money with charters, it's not like a piece of money with stocks that I can turn around and sell. If you're going with ownership, you're in it for life and that is something you'll probably pass on to your kids. Me personally, I would do something else with that money for the benefit of my girls. I'm not buying a charter and putting millions of dollars away into something that I can't then recoup or sell for a profit," he described. [20:55]
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. added that investing in something with the intent of selling it to make a profit would be wrong for him because of his legacy and last name.

He claimed that he could make a profit with other investments, revealing that he is still very much interested in joining the Cup Series as an owner.

"Me and Kelley (Earnhardt Miller) have talked about it. We're still talking to people. We're still at the table talking to different teams about maybe partnering, or investing ... we're always open to hearing what somebody thinks partnership with us would look like. None of them to this point have this point have been ... that's a win for everybody ... that's a perfect match," Junior added. [22:48]
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. misses the era when running a race in NASCAR was simpler

Speaking further on this subject, Dale Earnhardt Jr. claimed that, for the longest time, he and his sister thought they'd have to own and operate their own Cup team. But while this idea still interests Junior, he mentioned that he misses the era when things were a lot simpler than now.

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Earnhardt Jr. revealed that he misses the days when one could build a car and get into races. He mentioned that the cars are now more expensive, and going through the whole process "just feels really unrealistic."

When he was younger, one would buy the chassis, get people to put together the car, get a driver, go try to qualify, and run a race. Earnhardt Jr. expressed that even getting an experienced crew chief is tough now, because of how new the Next Gen car is and how only a few people are good at understanding it.

He added that the Cup experience "is so expensive" and "really, really challenging" at present.

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Edited by Vaishnavi Iyer
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