“I’ll Take 50% Pay Cut” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Recalls the Big Risk Kelley Earnhardt Took in Her Own Flourishing Career to Help Him Climb to the Top of NASCAR

Dale Earnhardt Jr and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller sat down for an interview with Graham Bensinger, where they talked about the time when Kelley requested to work for her brother, even though Dale couldn’t afford her.

Junior said, “When I started making some money in racing she called me and she says, hey you’re gonna need somebody to help you with your finances and your business and, what you know I’ve had cheques that I don’t even know what to do with thousands of dollars, a million dollars here and there, this is all.”

“I mean one year I was making three hundred fifty dollars a week and I went to making five million dollars in a year, and I’m and you would think he would be like, yeah! Like what the hell this is amazing and I’m like I don’t know what the hell to do you know.”

At this point, Kelley had worked her way up the chain of command in the NASCAR merchandise business, which in itself was flourishing. But she decided to just give it all away. Junior continued, “I said for one I can’t afford you, she’s like I’ll take 50% pay cut to come and she did.”

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After all these years, the NASCAR Hall of Famer has regretted that he did not give his sister a pay raise for a while. It was only when Kelley asked her brother directly that Earnhardt Jr. realized his mistake.

Kelley Earnhardt Miller did her best to support her brother after their dad passed away

Dale and Kelley always had a strong bond with each other while growing up and she was a major part of Junior’s life, especially after Dale Earnhardt Sr tragically lost his life during a racing incident.

Kelley mentioned that after their dad passed away, she knew that Junior needed someone to look out for him. Hence, the pay cut was not that big of a deal since they have always been looking after each other as brothers and sisters.

She concluded by stating that Dale was sort of personality that people would generally walk over and he would do nothing about it. Hence, she used to make sure to protect her brother at all times.