“Drink and Smoke Cigarettes” – Dale Earnhardt Jr on What Drove Him to Perform Well in Races During His Time at HMS

Being a NASCAR Cup Series driver comes with a lot of pressure and only a few people know of it better than Dale Earnhardt Jr. The 49-year-old is the son of a 7-time Cup Series champion so there was immense pressure on him even before he made his debut in the Cup Series. People take different methods to cope with pressure, some a bit questionable, some not. For Junior, it was partying with his friends, and drinking and smoking cigarettes to blow off some steam.

The route Dale Earnhardt Jr used to take to race better

The parties used to take place on Tuesday or Wednesday nights and they used to help Dale Earnhardt Jr run better on the weekend’s races. However, at Hendrick Motorsports, comparisons were made to Jimmie Johnson who used to stay fit and win countless races. Being the son of a 7-time Cup Series champion and then being compared to another 7-time champion must have affected Jr. His actions may seem questionable to some, but they certainly make him more relatable to the fans.

“I was gonna get with my buddies and party. I felt like I didn’t run a race as good if I didn’t blow off some steam on Tuesday or Wednesday night. And when I started racing for Hendrick, I tried to clean it up a little bit. Some of the people in the building were like ‘you’re not as…Jimmie’s in great shape, look at what he does, you should be doing these things.’ And I’m like, Jimmie’s Jimmie but okay, I’ll do better. I will lose some weight, I will work out, I will do these new things to try to be in better physical shape and better mental shape.”

“I would sustain from drinking or something for a couple of weeks and the results didn’t change for me. Then I’d go party with my buddies or something or have friends over on a Tuesday night and we’d damn kick a** on the race weekend. And I was just like, maybe I’m just one of the old guards, I need to drink and smoke some cigarettes to kick a**,” he said.

While Dale Earnhardt Jr used cigarettes and alcohol to blow off some steam, his father did something highly unusual. The alcohol part remained the same for both father and son but instead of smoking, ‘The Intimidator’ used to engage in some landscaping and construction work.

Junior explains what made him and his father different 

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If you’re gonna ask anybody to take part in landscaping and construction to blow off steam, they’re probably gonna laugh at you. However, for Dale Earnhardt, it was the perfect release. Junior spoke about how his father would get into a bulldozer on the first three days of the week and always work to build something on the land he owned. He even ended up building a log cabin behind the DEI shop as a result and spent a lot of time there.

“What dad did was that he drank beer with his buddies and then he rode a bulldozer. Like he would go spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday moving dirt and shaping his land. He had property and he loved to build a dam or clear a field or…there was always a job and a thing to do that had to…he wasn’t like this property wasn’t making him money but it was a project of his. So he was always clearing land, pushing trees over, and ‘We’re gonna make this look a certain way and I’m gonna…we’re gonna build a house over here so I’m gonna clean this stuff’,” Junior added.

The 49-year-old said he understands what he did was wrong and was adamant that he would never recommend partying every single week just to relax. But to be fair, that sounds like a lot more fun than getting on a bulldozer and clearing land.