"He hated it": Dale Earnhardt Jr. and wife Amy agree over NASCAR legend's weak spot as a racecar driver

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently remarked on his lack of qualifying skills following his participation in the CARS Tour race at Florence. His wife, Amy Earnhardt agreed with him.

During a recent episode of his podcast "Dale Jr. Download", Earnhardt Jr. spoke about qualifying in 22nd place for the CARS Tour race at Florence. The former NASCAR driver finished 10th and claimed that had he started in a better position, things could have been different.

"I'm a terrible qualifier. I have no idea why. I don't know what I'm doing wrong," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "I am bound and damn determined to figure out what to do better. And it's in me, something I'm doing with the car, I'm driving it. Once we get the race going, I'm okay. We had enough speed to compete in top 5. I just got to qualify better."

"When you qualify in the back you're not going to drive from the back of the field to the front anymore. The field is too strong. I have to qualify in the top 15 to have a shot at it."

Amy added to Earnhardt Jr.'s comments by saying the one thing that hasn't changed for him since his NASCAR days is the qualifying results.

"Qualifying has not changed. We hated qualifying back then too. We would have some really, really rough Friday evenings. He hated it. So that hasn't changed but it didn't matter as much as it does now I guess because you're at such a small track and the car handles so differently," she said.

Following his premature retirement at 43, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his wife's involvement in his decision clear.

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When Dale Earnhardt Jr. shut down the rumors of his wife's role in his retiring from NASCAR

As per People magazine, the former Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. clarified in his book that his wife Amy Earnhardt played no role in his decision to retire from NASCAR.

Earnhardt Jr. shocked many when he announced in the first few months of 2017 that it would be his last year in NASCAR. He was 43 years old, which isn't the usual retirement age for drivers. Rumors began to spring that Amy, who he married in 2016, had a hand in his premature retirement.

“As my time out of the racecar was extended, and as rumors about my retirement started getting louder, a lot of people spoke up. They had a very hard time dealing with it all. They looked for something or someone to blame (...) anyone who tried — and might still try — to blame Amy...”

Earnhardt Jr. put the rumors to bed when he revealed that he and his wife had zero conversations where she suggested he quit racing NASCAR.