Dale Earnhardt Jr. Interview Transcript

As a member of the Dew Crew, I had the opportunity to ask Dale Earnhardt Jr. a few questions in a digital press conference. Unfortunately Google+ hangout somehow kicked me out. Thanks to the moderator, who asked my questions in my place!

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Mountain Dew.

TRANSCRIPT COPY:

Dew Crew Press Conference

Mountain Dew

The Mountain Dew Insiders

10/31/12

Moderator (Tom Stern): Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the 

Diet Mountain Dew Crew Press Conference with Dale Earnhardt Jr.!

Thank you for joining our exclusive Google Hangout today with the

King of the Dew Crew himself! An even bigger thanks goes out to the

most influential 6 Diet Mountain Dew Crew Insiders for participating.

They earned their spot by going above and beyond and showing their

commitment to Dale Jr. and the Diet Mountain Dew Crew.

As members of the Diet Mountain Dew Crew you were able to make

real decisions about the #88 team in addition to being part of an

awesome community of other #88 fans! You blogged, tweeted, and

chatted about everything Dale Jr. and Diet Dew, and got access to some

amazing prizes and gear – best of all you now have the opportunity to

chat with the man himself... Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t really need an

introduction – he’s had your loyalty and passion since day one!

You’ve helped vote Mr. Earnhardt in as NASCAR’s most popular driver

for 9 consecutive seasons. So let’s get started with some questions. First

up is Lisa Weidknecht from Planet Weidknecht.

The first questions we’re going to have is from Lisa, “Dale the interview

and letter from you as a teen about your dad was very inspirational.

Does he come to mind when you're driving?”

Dale: Yeah, I mean I don’t know if I would say he comes to mind while

I’m driving, but I definitely carry the legacy with me and it’s important

for me to carry on the family name and honor the family name. My

father and his father as well, they’ve invested a lot into the name, and it

carries a certain weight around the sport, and I just want to kind of add

my niche to it and not do anything to hurt that or harm that. So yeah, I

think about that when I’m driving and know that the decisions I make

are going to be a reflection on my family and the legacy.

Moderator: Absolutely, the second questions we have from Lisa

is, “What is your favorite track to run and why?”

Dale: It’s hard to pick just one because we run on so many different

race tracks and they’re all really different. There’s something cool about

each one, and each one has its own character. I like short tracks a lot,

Bristol and Richmond are tracks that I enjoy racing. I just like the close

quarters that short tracks provide, there’s always a competitor close-by

to compete with. On the mile and a half tracks we get a little spread out

and it’s kind of difficult to enjoy those races as much because the close-

quarters racing is what I thrive on, you know, what I really enjoy. But

there’s a different mentality and a different way to race at different race

tracks and they all, like I said, have their own character.

Moderator: Sure, thanks very much. Dawn Pruitt of Check It Out with

Dawn, you’re next.

Dawn: Hey Dale, I’m so excited to be able to talk to you. My first

question is, “What other sports do you participate in?”

Dale: Well me and my friends have a basketball league that we play

every summer and I’m involved in that and I play softball as well.

There’s a league in town, and me and a lot of people that work at JR

Motorsports and the former team we’re a part of that league. So we go

play with the rest of the community and that’s a lot of fun as well. It’s

good clean fun and, aside from that I don’t know. I picked up golf about

a year ago. I’m not very good but I do enjoy getting out on the course. I

just like how beautiful the courses are and being outdoors and being out

in nature’s a lot of fun, good relaxing time if you get the opportunity to

do it.

Dawn: Cool, OK! My second question is, “I just suffered a house fire

and lost my home in a fire. So my question is, If your house was burning

down and you could save 1 item, what would it be?”

Dale: I’m sorry to hear about your misfortune. I was in a house fire

as well when I was about seven years old. Me and my mother and my

sister lived together in Kannapolis and we woke up one morning and our

house was on fire. It burnt down and she moved to Norfolk to be with

her mother and that’s when custody of me and my sister was given to

my father. So I had quite an interesting childhood, so I can imagine what

you’re going through. I would definitely have to say my dogs, Killer,

would be the first thing I’d go looking for.

Dawn: We lost our pets, so that’s a great answer.

Dale: Yes, ma’am.

Moderator: Dawn, thank you so much you had a couple of great

questions there. We’re going to move on to Cristine from More from

Mom’s Book.

Cristine: Hi, my first question is, “I have two little boys at home, when

did you realize you wanted to be a race car driver and how old were

you?”

Dale: I guess I was around twelve years old when I realized that I was

going to make a serious effort and commitment to driving cars. When I

was really young I wanted to be a football player, and when I was six or

seven I dreamed of being a football player, but as I got older I got

exposed to racing and the sport, and what my father was doing I started

to fall in love with the sport and what he did, and I loved going to the

races and being around it, and I guess around the age of twelve or

thirteen is when I sat down and realized, wow, I want to drive race cars

and I’ve got to wait until I get my driver’s license to do it. That was

about three or four years, I thought I was going to go crazy sitting on my

couch waiting on that to happen. Just going and observing was

becoming really difficult. I was missing something that I hadn’t even

been a part of yet, but I knew driving was what I wanted to do and just

being patient and waiting on myself to grow up and mature was

probably the hardest part.

Cristine: My second question would be, “Do have any pre-race rituals

that you have to do every time before you get out on the track?”

Dale: I don’t have any superstitions or rituals. Our weekends and our

Sundays are really consistent. We have the same sort of schedule. In the

mornings we’ll get up go do a few meet and greets with our sponsors,

Mountain Dew, the National Guard, a third with Chevrolet at the Chevy

Stage which really involves meeting fans and interacting, taking pictures

with fans and just seeing some of the people that our companies might

have brought in and enjoy the race. Then, after that I will go to the

drivers meeting and I’ll have about a 45 minute break in between the

drivers meeting and the drivers intro where I need to get something to

eat and to get my uniform on and that’s pretty much, every weekend’s

similar to that. I kind of like the repetitiveness and having everything

sort of, I know what I’m getting myself into. I’m the kind of person who

really doesn’t like surprises, so we’ve sort of got it structured the way

we like it and, the only thing I’m superstitious about is probably just the

standard stuff that you get taught when you’re young about black cats

crossing the road or walking under ladders or breaking mirrors, you

know those are the kinds of things, I’m definitely superstitious about

those things.

Cristine: Thank you!

Dale: Yes ma’am

Moderator: Thanks very much, next up is Z. Smith from NASCAR Race

Mom. Her first question is, “Dale, what was the best piece of advice

your father gave you?”

Dale: One thing that was important to him was that we finish school.

He dropped out of school in eighth grade at sixteen years old and even

though he was able to have a successful career as a race car driver I

think that he knew as he got older and understood just what he had

done, I think he understood how limited and how the odds were stacked

against him to have that type of career and have that kind of lifestyle

so it was really important to him that myself and Kelly finished school

and attempt to earn a degree in college. He was really glad that my

sister went the extra mile to do that. I went to Mitchell, which is in

Statesville, North Carolina, twenty minutes up the road and got an

automotive degree because I wanted to work on cars, and at this time,

when I graduated high school, driving race cars and being a race car

driver for a living weren’t a guarantee. So I went and got an automotive

degree to be a mechanic in a dealership, and that’s what I actually did

for about four years. But, that’s what was most important, the standard

stuff, stay away from drugs and alcohol and hanging around with the

wrong crowd. He was always worried about us sort of getting mixed up

in the wrong things and I just think he knew what the pitfalls in life were

out there and how dangerously close we were to those and how easily

affected and impressionable young kids are so he was really worried that

we make the right choices at that age, but once we got done with college

we got a lot of freedom, we made the choices we wanted to make and he

wasn’t quite as concerned after that.

Moderator: Great, well just going along with that, “Dale, do you feel that

your popularity with the fans carries its own set of responsibilities?”

Dale: Yeah absolutely. I guess I’m always cognizant of the decisions I

make, what I say, how I react because I know that it has repercussions

whether good or bad, and I have to represent not only myself but the

sponsors that we have, the guys that work on my car, everything that

you do is a reflection of everything around you and I don’t want to upset

my sponsors, I don’t want to embarrass the guys that work on my team

and are trying to help me, I don’t want to upset my mother. You think

about all those things when you’re out there working and doing what

you’re trying to do, and the fans are willing to support you and they’ll

go through thick and thin to stand by your side and they’ll argue with

their coworkers and argue with their other family members about your

abilities and your talent and all that stuff, and so you want to do things

that make them proud and you don’t want to do anything that goes

against what they believe, and sort of, you don’t want to insult their

intelligence or do anything that’s going to upset them in any way. So

yeah I’m really cognizant of that and I think it’s important that you are

aware of what you’re doing, and know that everything you say and do

has repercussions and you have to be smart about that.

Moderator: Most definitely. Thank you very much to those questions

from Z. Smith! Dale, several influencers were unable to attend today’s

press conference due to hurricane Sandy, but we’d like to pass several of

their questions along. To everyone out there affected, we sincerely hope

that you and your families are safe and we’re wishing you the best of

luck!

First up, we have a question from Susan of Susan Heim on Parenting.

She asks, “Dale, what is your favorite flavor of Mountain Dew?”

Dale: I like Diet Mountain Dew. I think it was the blueberry or whatever

they came out with for the Dark Knight movie was really, really good.

I drank a lot of that on Sunday in Michigan. But, Diet Mountain Dew

is my favorite and I like Orange Amp as well. They’re coming back out

with the Orange Amp so I’m excited about that.

Moderator (on behalf of Dawn): Excellent. Next up we have a question

from Dawn, from With a Side of Thriftiness. She asks, “What is the

fastest speed you’ve driven?”

Dale: I really don’t know. Our cars don’t have speedometers in them

so it’s hard to know for sure exactly how fast we went, but I believe at

Michigan this year with the repave that we ran, 200 miles an hour as an

average lap. So, I would say that at the end of the straightaway we were

running about 217 to 218 miles an hour and that’s probably as fast as

I’ve ever driven, 218.

Moderator (on behalf of Tony): Wow, our next question comes from

Tony, of The Tunnel Turn. He asks, “Have you ever disguised yourself

so that you could go outside without being recognized? If so how far

will you go to go unnoticed?”

Dale: I have done that before. When we leave the night races at

Richmond on Saturday night we park our car way out in front of the

race track across the street so we have to walk through the grandstands

and basically, as the fans are exiting the racetrack we’re kind of walking

right through that. So, earlier in the day I will go to a souvenir rig and

buy souvenirs from another driver and sort of dress up as a race fan for

someone else like Bobby Labonte, and I’ve done that before. I carry a

seat cushion and put on my Bobby Labonte gear and head on out of the

racetrack with all of the fans, and I’m cheering for Bobby.

Moderator (on behalf of Kim): Alright great. Dale, we’ve got one more

questions for you. Our final question for the day comes from Kim, from

2 Kids and A Coupon. Kim asks, “In your recent letter to your sixteen-

year old self, you talk about how your dad encouraged your career. What

do you think that today’s parents can do to help nurture their children’s

hopes and dreams?”

Dale: Well, I think you just need to be supportive and encouraging, and

remarks are really what matters the most and the delivery is everything

when you’re talking to your child. I remember when I was young it

was the delivery and how your father talked to you or how your mother

talked to you, and most times it really wasn’t even the words they said

but it was the tone and the way they spoke to you, that was really what

influenced me the most. I would either get disheartened or get fired up

and excited depending on really that tone. The tone of the voice and the

delivery in what you’re trying to say I think, that’s the key starting point.

Moderator: Well, that concludes the Diet Mountain Dew Crew Press

Conference with Dale Earnhardt Jr.! Thanks to all the influencers

for participating and expecially to Dale for taking the time out of his

busy schedule to chat with us! Check back on the Diet Mountain Dew

Facebook page for more exciting things to come in 2013!