"It was just a circus": Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks back on strict pre-race at Daytona 500 with President Trump's presence

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife Amy shared their thoughts on the pre-race of the Daytona 500. The Great American Race, NASCAR's season-opener, held last Sunday, was attended by many notable people from inside and outside the sport, including President Donald Trump.

Earnhardt Jr. and his wife Amy discussed this on their show, Bless Your 'Hardt. Amy said that the pre-race at Daytona was 'crazy' and because the President was there, 'everything was locked down.'

"It was just wild. Its always very intense, there's always so many people, in a good way that it's very exciting. I can't compare the energy to anything. We've been to Super Bowls with NBC to do things like that. It's comparable but it's just so much bigger," she said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added that because President Trump was there, things became ten times 'more challenging.' He remarked that the drivers were late to the pre-race driver's meeting, with only 40% of them on time. Junior said that any gate they went through with their hard card, was a 75-10-person lock queue where they were 'wanding you and buzzing you' everywhere.

Dale Jr. described how they usually head for the pre-race intros right after the driver's meeting. However, at the recent Daytona 500, they were advised not to because they'd have to be scanned again.

"It was just a circus. There were like a sea of people out in front of the racetrack not able to get in because it was taking so long to scan people and check things. It was wild," Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

NASCAR's Steve Phelps addresses Dale Earnhardt Jr. becoming a full-time fixture in Cup garage in future

In the 2025 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his Cup debut as an owner with JR Motorsports in the #40 entry driven by Justin Allgaier.

After making it to the main event on Sunday earlier in the week, Allgaier drove the Traveller Whiskey-sponsored Chevy Camaro to a top 10 finish, capping off a successful first foray into NASCAR's highest tier for Junior and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller.

But while their first foray into the Cup was successful, Dale Earnhardt Jr. maintained a pragmatic approach towards pursuing something on a full-time basis. And speaking about the possibility of having Earnhardt Jr. in the Cup Series as an owner, NASCAR's Steve Phelps commented:

"They're the backbone of the sport. They've had a lot of success in the Xfinity Series and won last year's championship, this was the first time JRM fielded a car in the Daytona 500...I'm hoping they'll field more cars this year and I'm not sure what's going to happen in the future, we'd love to see them run full-time, obviously," Phelps said via Sports Business Journal.

With that said, it'll be interesting to see if Dale Earnhardt Jr. pursues more races in the Cup Series in the future, or whether he'd only aim to run the Daytona 500s.