Tragedy Strikes Dale Earnhardt Jr as Veteran Employee Ryan Pemberton Passes Away

Ahead of the 2024 NASCAR season, tragedy has struck the community. As it happens, former NASCAR crew chief Ryan Pemberton has passed away. He was 54 years old at the time of his passing and will be sorely missed. One of the worst-hit members of the community, will be Dale Earnhardt Jr. This is because Pemberton was the JR Motorsports competition director, thus a key member of the team.

Pemberton has a fair amount of experience in the NASCAR arena. Back in 1995, he worked as a crew chief for Larry Pearson, guiding him to two wins that year. This also includes Pearson’s last Busch Series win at Myrtle Beach, which took his tally to 15 career wins. More recently, he was Regan Smith’s crew chief in 2014 at JR Motorsports. As competition director, his primary role was to coordinate between all of the JR Motorsports crew chiefs. Additionally, he worked closely with key personnel in the shop.

How important was he to Dale Earnhardt Jr and JR Motorsports?

Pemberton started his NASCAR career at Roush Fenway Racing in 1988. After gaining a fair amount of experience, he was part of Mark Martin’s first victory at Rockingham in 1989. Six years later, he became Pearson’s crew chief, and was the youngest crew chief at the age of 25. He soon moved to the Cup Series, and worked alongside the likes of Mark Martin, Jerry Nadeau, Joe Nemechek, David Reutimann and Brian Vickers.

Finally, JR Motorsport came along as a newly established team and recruited him. Pemberton took on the role of director of competition for JR Motorsports in 2012, and has worked diligently. Aside from working with the crew chiefs, he used to oversee car research and development. During his tenure, he was part of three NASCAR Xfinity Series championships and multiple race wins with the organization. Prior to his appointment, the team could only muster nine wins, so he injected some much-needed confidence. When he worked as Regan Smith’s crew chief, he guided the driver to his fourth career win. That win was at the season-opening Daytona International Speedway, and Smith went on to finish runner-up in the championship point standings.

The Earnhardt family was devastated by the loss

A statement from Kelley Earnhardt Miller read, “Ryan was instrumental to JR Motorsports’ success during the decade he spent with us. He had such a passion for competition and, as a leader, knew how to motivate everyone he worked with. He will always be part of the JRM family. Our hearts go out to his wife Andrea and daughters Payton and Britton during this tremendously difficult time.”

Many others also shared their condolences at Pemberton’s passing. Admittedly, the cause of death is still unclear, but it is still a devastating loss nonetheless. Another fan wrote, “Hate hearing this. Ryan was always fun to talk to and be around . Thoughts and prayers to the whole Pemberton family”.