“It was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s idea”: American singer spills the beans on Junior’s midnight beer moment at Bristol 

Country music singer Drew Parker was recently interviewed at the Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend. It was the night after he and retired NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared a few beers together on the 0.5-mile track following the Food City 300 Xfinity Series race, where Earnhardt Jr. placed seventh.

The interviewer, Andrew Kurland, who joins Earnhardt Jr. on his weekly podcast the Dale Jr. Download, asked the American singer about how his night transpired with the 15-time Most Popular Driver. Parker responded by saying it was a fond time as he and the two-time Daytona 500 winner drank beers on pit road and climbed up the banking of turns one and two, where they sat for a group photo.

When asked who thought of wanting to climb the banking, Parker said it was Earnhardt Jr. He was quoted as saying:

"It was Dale's idea. He was like, 'If you're ever going to do it, if you ever want to do it, you got to do it right now,' and so like at 1:30 this morning, we were climbing up the track."

Kurland then asked Parker how difficult it was to climb the banking as well as how many beers he had drank. Parker didn't give an exact number but added that he was the "tame" one of the bunch. When it came to climbing the banking, Parker said getting up was one thing, but getting down was another.

"It was easier getting up it. Coming down was horrendous," he said.

The Food City 300 was Earnhardt Jr.'s return to the Xfinity Series. Since retiring from full-time competition in 2017, the North Carolina native has made yearly appearances in the series.

The two-time Xfinity champion placed ninth in stage two and finished seventh after starting 13th. Earnhardt Jr. doesn't have an Xfinity race lined up to run in 2025.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrated the Bristol race by drinking beer on pit road until 2 a.m.

In his first race back in the Xfinity Series and last for the foreseeable future, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made sure to enjoy himself following the checkered flag. In a post on his personal X account, Earnhardt Jr. felt he maximized the evening, both in the race with a seventh-place finish and after the race by drinking beer until 2 a.m.

"Drank beer on pit road till 2am. I think we got everything out of this evening we possibly could. Recommend 10 out of 10. Would come again."

The post was in response to racing insider Jeff Gluck who was recapping Earnhardt Jr.'s race, which included radio issues, losing his glasses, and flipping off Xfinity driver Riley Herbst mid-race. Despite the adversity, Earnhardt Jr. managed to salvage a top-ten finish.