“I’m not ashamed”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes his beer animosity known despite it testing the bartender’s limits

There was a time when Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t even like the taste of alcohol, and today, the 50-year-old man just can’t do without his cold bottle of suds. However, the NASCAR vet dotes on only a particular kind of beer, which sometimes gets a little difficult to come by.

Dale Jr. absolutely hates craft beers; he’s more of a light beer kind of person. But not every bar in the U.S. serves light beers. And whenever Dale Jr. is at any such bar, he finds himself in a fix.

Speaking about it in a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, the two-time Xfinity Series champion said,

“I cannot stand craft beer. When I got to the craft beer places that serve only the craft beers... and I know this annoys the hell out of the bartender... I'm the guy that's like, you got anything that's kind of like a domestic light? And that hate that; they hate me. They hate that person. You come into our place and ask for that?”

Well, everyone is entitled to their choices and so is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Unapologetic about his choice of beer, the man exclaimed,

“But that's who I am. And I'm not ashamed.”

Dale Jr. is one of the front faces of NASCAR and American open-wheel racing. He owns JR Motorsports, a championship-winning Xfinity Series team, alongside his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports.

He is also the co-owner of zMAX CARS Tour, and the main man behind Dirty Mo Media, an original content company that features several NASCAR-dedicated shows like Actions Detrimental and Door Bumper Clear.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Budweiser die-casts tops Chase Elliott’s NASCAR sales

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the fans go gaga with the revival of his iconic No. 8 Budweiser Chevy for this year’s Southern Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway. After all, it was the same car the two-time Daytona 500 winner drove to the victory lane 17 times during his term at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Dale Jr. had to settle for a disappointing P28 finish due to mechanical issues in his car. However, he promised to pilot the Chevy Camaro in select late-model races through 2025. Since then, the sales of his No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro die-cast have grown steadily.

So much so that it even topped the sales of Chase Elliott’s No. 9 merchandise. As quoted in a recent article by The Daytona Beach News-Journal,

“Lionel Racing has released the top 10 best-selling die-cast cars of 2024, and a Dale Jr. late-model Chevy topped the list. And not just any late-model race car, but one carrying the paint scheme and logo of the sponsor synonymous with Junior during the bulk of his career: Budweiser.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s stint with Budweiser came to an end when he left DEI in 2007 and joined Hendrick Motorsports. He won nine more races with his new team before retiring in 2017.

Since then, Dale Jr. has been running at least one race every year under the banner of JR Motorsports. However, he will not be running any NASCAR-sanctioned race next year due to his duties as a commentator for both Amazon Prime and TNT Sports.