"They wanted us to force fake drama" - Kelley Earnhardt discloses truth behind 'NASCAR Wives' rejection

Kelley Earnhardt recently made an appearance as a guest on the Motorvate podcast, hosted by Mike Skinner’s wife Angie. Kelley is Dale Earnhardt Jr’s sister and the CEO of JR Motorsports. Skinner and Earnhardt gave a glimpse into the racing world from a woman's perspective in the podcast. While doing so, the two discussed the NASCAR Wives docu-series and shared the truth behind it.

NASCAR, in collaboration with TLC, started the production of a television docu-series called “NASCAR Wives”. A total of eight episodes were approved for the first season but the show never made it to air. The show was shot in the late 2000s. Kelly and Angie discussed the reasons why the show wasn't aired and the problems with it.

“What I just remember about, I mean, the whole reason that the show never got on air was because they wanted it to be drama that didn't exist. And they wanted us to force some fake drama. And it was like, we're friends. We uphold each other. We respect each other. And so no, we're not gonna do that.” (36:50 onwards)

Angie Skinner added to Kelley Earnhardt’s point and said:

“Yeah, nor do we want to drag our family, our kids, our friends into this mess. And so I think they called like after that critic store, they called and they were like, ladies, we're gonna act that show because, and we're like, well, we're not doing all that stuff. And the cool thing is NASCAR said, we're not asking you.”

The two further discussed how they started filming in winter when the NASCAR drivers, crew and people are enjoying the off-season and there is little to no work going on at the office and factory. They also discussed how Kelley was asked to talk about her private plane when she never owned one.

According to sources, the production was taken care of by NASCAR Media Group and it reportedly cost them $200,000.

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Former NASCAR Media Group CEO’s statement shared Kelley Earnhardt's opinion on why docu-series didn't work out

Both Angie Skinner and Kelley Earnhardt got the call from the Discovery (TLC is part of the Discovery group) and were invited to appear in the NASCAR Wives docu-series. They were told that the show was going to be about working, smart, intelligent women. However, it appeared that they wanted drama. Former NASCAR Media Group CEO Jay Abraham revealed that the show was demanding unrealistic scenarios.

Kelley Earnhardt- NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship - Source: Imagn

Abraham said in June 2010 (via Superior Telegram):

“We just had to go our separate ways. We were never able to agree on the creative approach for the project. We simply were not going to do anything to undermine the credibility and the relationships we have with our drivers. We were being asked to do things more in line with traditional reality programming and it wasn't true to the nature and personality of our sport and the women involved.”

NASCAR did release a docu-series on Netflix earlier this year called NASCAR: Full Speed which got an IMDb rating of 7.3 and is based around the drivers and the championship.