"I was prepping Amy": Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals the extent of involvement with sister Kelley in landmark Daytona 500 chance

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently revealed his thoughts on JR Motorsports' upcoming Daytona 500 opportunity. Junior and his sister Kelley, co-owners of JRM, recently announced their participation in the Daytona 500 with the #40 car sponsored by Traveller Whiskey.

Justin Allgaier, defending Xfinity Series champion, was later announced to be the driver for their first-ever Cup start as team owners. Speaking about this recently on his podcast, Dale Jr. claimed that he's thankful for 'a lot of key elements' that made his opportunity to come to life for JRM.

Junior spoke about how deeply he is and wants to be involved with JRM going to the Daytona 500, as he said:

"I've reached out to the crew chief and I've said, 'Hey, what's the status?' And he said, 'I'm already building the chassis, I'm picking out the body panels.' I'm like, 'Alright, I want to come and see that. I want to see this process come together.'"

Earnhardt Jr. shared about telling his wife Amy that while he usually goes to the Daytona weekend for the Xfinity race and comes back home after cheering on his team, this time, he wants to be there for every single moment.

"I said, 'Hey I want to be there as soon as the car gets pushed out the pit road. I want to be there in the garage when they're rolling it out the hauler. I want to see it, all of these things.' I was prepping Amy, I was like, 'You understand I'm going to want to see all of the things. It'd be very proud," Earnhardt Jr. described.

Earnhardt Jr. told Kelley that he wanted to do the same things for her as well, considering this was something the couple talked about for close to two decades. Dale Jr. claimed that racing in the Daytona 500 with JRM would be 'a lot of fun', and that he's looking forward to it 'regardless of the end result.'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. mentioned that it is a cog in the big wheel of things he and Kelley have done in motorsports. And this is one thing he wants them to experience together to the fullest.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens up on his expectations from the upcoming Daytona start for JRM

Talking about what he expects from the #40 car in JRM's first-ever Daytona 500 start, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that they're in a position where they can't 'go down.' Earnhardt mentioned that they're already starting at the bottom.

And to him, it's a start to more potential opportunities at the Cup level for JR Motorsports. He added:

“Should it be a situation where it's very challenging, it would only motivate us to continue to go back. When we don't entirely succeed at something, we retool and try again.”

It'll be interesting to see how JR Motorsports' first foray into the Cup Series fares out for Dale Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller. While the brother-sister duo of co-owners has tasted immense success in the Xfinity Series, racing in the Cup would be a different challenge altogether.