“You felt that you weren’t strong enough”: Dale Jr.’s sister Kelley Earnhardt once spoke up about racing against men while growing up

Today, NASCAR aficionados know Kelley Earnhardt Miller mostly as the co-owner of JR Motorsports alongside two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. However, in a 2019 interview with Brown Brothers Harriman (bbh.com), the 51-year-old Kannapolis resident revealed that she used to be a good driver as well.

Kelley Earnhardt is an American businesswoman, the CEO of JR Motorsports, and the author of "Drive: 9 Lessons to Win in Business and in Life", a book that sheds light on her journey growing up to become one of the most influential women in the arena of motorsports. She is also the daughter of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Unfortunately, circumstances did not allow her to follow in the footsteps of her legendary father. In her final year of school, Kelley Earnhardt used to work at her dad's merchandising company, which the latter founded in 1995.

After work, she went to school, got back home at 2 p.m. on Fridays and raced. Sometimes, she would even race over the weekends. She recalled herself being one of the few female drivers at the time.

"Eventually, I had to make a choice – was I going to race or work?" Miller said. "It was different for my brothers, Dale Jr. and Kerry, because they worked in the shops, so they were able to work on their cars and take their cars racing, while I had a regular day job."

Kelley Earnhardt during a press conference before the 2010 Daytona 500-Qualifying (P/C: Imagn)

"I often heard, “Kelley, the shop isn’t a place for girls.” It was just hard. You felt that you weren’t strong enough, fast enough or good enough because you were a girl," she added.

Nevertheless, Kelley Earnhardt shone to prominence as the co-owner of JR Motorsports. Since its inception, the Chevy team has amassed three championships and 58 national series victories. Currently, JR Motorsports is the home to four Xfinity Series drivers: Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Sam Mayer, and Sammy Smith.

Kelley Earnhardt on the position of women in NASCAR today

Kelley Earnhardt Miller thinks that NASCAR is more open to women today and that there are more opportunities for women racers to make it big in the sport. Recalling the times when women were more into handling the PR and the business side of things, she said (in the aforementioned interview):

"The sport has changed, and it’s more open to women. Throughout my career, many women have worked in racing, especially in public relations and marketing roles, but not on the competition side of the business."

According to Miller, it is unfortunate that the competitive nature of the sport does not highlight the role of women in it.

"Unfortunately, our sport is viewed from a competition angle, so you don’t see all the women who are a part of it," she explained. "There are female engineers, tire specialists and pit crew members who all travel with the road crew on the weekends."

Nevertheless, she expressed happiness about the fact that several women like Danica Patrick in the past and others like Hailie Deegan and Toni Breidinger in the present are well-known NASCAR racecar drivers in their own right.