"I'd be sweating bullets" - Dale Earnhardt Jr. credits Chase Elliott's composure in pressure-cooker scenarios 

Ever since his retirement as a full-timer in NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has made one-off appearances in the Xfinity Series. For 2024, Junior's yearly NASCAR race is up next at Bristol, ahead of which he shared feeling the nerves and being under pressure.

During a recent episode of his podcast, Dale Jr. said he gets nervous a lot. He revealed that last year for his yearly race, he was "freaking out" because he was on the verge of not making the race. However, this year he doesn't have to worry about that because everybody is already locked in.

Earnhardt explained that he is someone who wants to deliver and run well enough to win. He further shared his take on the differences between him and drivers such as Chase Elliott in high-pressure situations when there are expectations from them.

Earnhardt said,

"This is the difference in me and other other race car drivers. Some of us look at that and go, 'that's more pressure,' and others look at it and go 'that's opportunity.' Chase Elliott, he gets to Phoenix for his first finals - actually I think it's the year he won a championship. They interviewed him at the racetrack on Friday and he's standing by pit wall, and I'm sitting there in my mind thinking, 'Man, I'd be sweating bullets, I'd be so nervous.'

So I don't know how these drivers when they get to the final race at Phoenix, how they manage the pressure" [7:47].

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When Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened up on how he perceived pressure following the 2001 Daytona 500

Towards the end of the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was cruising on his way to a 2nd place finish behind Michael Waltrip. He and Waltrip were being helped by the great Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was fending off any incoming moves to protect the two drivers ahead of him.

The checkered flag dropped, Waltrip won, and Junior finished in the runner-up spot. But the celebrations quickly turned to gloom as it became clear that Junior's father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., was involved in a pretty serious wreck on the final lap.

After a lot of tense hours, it was officially announced that in that seemingly ordinary wreck, NASCAR had lost its greatest star, and Dale Jr. his father.

In 2007, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was making the move away from his father's team, DEI, to Hendrick Motorsports, he opened up on why he felt no pressure in moving to a new team.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Dale Jr. had said,

"To me, pressure was having to go to Rockingham the week after my dad died and racing that whole year. That was pressure," he said.

As for his future with HMS, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said at the time that the coming years of his career in NASCAR were going to be "a whole lot of fun."