{"id":21763,"date":"2018-09-09T14:15:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T19:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=21763"},"modified":"2018-09-09T20:17:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T01:17:25","slug":"earnhardt-enjoying-the-broadcast-booth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/09\/earnhardt-enjoying-the-broadcast-booth\/","title":{"rendered":"Earnhardt enjoying the broadcast booth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Eight races into his NBC Sports broadcasting gig, Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/strong> conceded it\u2019s been a legitimate learning experience, but he\u2019s loving the opportunity and figuring out how to be a good student of the occupation.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

This weekend, the two-time Daytona 500 winner will drive the Chevrolet pace car prior to the start of Monday\u2019s rain-delayed Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) \u2013 a first-time opportunity for Earnhardt at the historic track and one that he is genuinely excited about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked if I would be interested in doing that and it\u2019s such an historic race track and a big race for the series, plus the relationship with Chevrolet that I\u2019ve had for years, it just made a lot of sense to me, as long as everybody with NBC and with the broadcast didn\u2019t mind,\u2019\u2019 Earnhardt said Sunday morning trackside.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I\u2019ll miss the front end of the show and probably won\u2019t get up into Turn 2 until a few laps into the race, but we\u2019ve got a plan to make sure all that is real smooth. So it will be good. It will be a bit of a bucket-list kind of item for me, and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin\/Dale Earnhardt Jr. interview:<\/em><\/p>\n

Earnhardt will be making another \u201cfirst\u201d in two weeks at Richmond International Raceway. Although he has retired from fulltime racing, he will be making a one-race start in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet in the Sept. 21 Xfinity Series race at the track.<\/p>\n

It will be his first NASCAR start since he climbed out of his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 after the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season finale in Homestead, Florida, last November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it,\u2019\u2019 Earnhardt said, flashing a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t miss racing at the start of the year at all. I didn\u2019t miss driving much. When I got back to the broadcasting and started to really plug into what the races were like and what was going on, you see moments in the races that make you wish you were out there doing that. And so, I started to miss it a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Richmond as a track. And it\u2019s a pretty straightforward little race track. We have had success there. I\u2019m not really putting any expectations or pressure on myself as far as performance. I just want to go run and have fun.<\/p>\n

And, Earnhard said, it just may be the last time he enters a major NASCAR race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only time I\u2019m going to race a car this year. And it may be the last time I race a car,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know what our plans are going forward. I don\u2019t really have any initiative to drive a ton of races. So, we\u2019ll just kind of see what kind of opportunities there are down the road with the sponsorships and so forth that help the rest of the company. But, hopefully I get to run all the laps and just enjoy driving the car. The only reason you get behind the wheel of a race car is because it\u2019s fun and you enjoy the competition. Hopefully those are things that I get out of it and try not to get real competitive about it. I don\u2019t want to sweat over every lap and how fast we are in practice and all those things, and make it a miserable experience (laughs) because most race car drivers tend to do that if you\u2019re not careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Earnhardt will work his new \u201cday job\u201d for NBC \u2013 an opportunity that has pushed and challenged the driver in ways he didn\u2019t necessarily anticipate. Each week, he has had a different role on the television broadcast and he says it has really forced him to push his own limits.<\/p>\n

He says the whole experience has really opened his eyes. And although there\u2019s been a definitive learning curve, Earnhardt is enjoying the new job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even pay attention to this stuff when I wasn\u2019t in broadcasting,\u2019\u2019 Earnhardt said. \u201cIt\u2019s so funny. The complexities and things going on in the broadcast production side of it that you had no idea were happening when you\u2019re driving a car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to get a lot better. I want to be around a long time. I want to do this for a while. I really enjoy it. So, I think there are areas where I can improve and I\u2019ve got to pay my dues kind of thing. So, I\u2019m doing that. It\u2019s not easy. It feels stressful and there\u2019s some competition. There are really good people in that production team and in the booth. All the people have great personalities and are fun to be around. But, it\u2019s competitive in the sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lean on you to do your job and hold up your end, you know? You can\u2019t come in ill prepared. And, it\u2019s obvious when you\u2019re not doing your homework. It\u2019s obvious to everyone in the room. We spend so much time around each other. So, there\u2019s a little pressure and it\u2019s good. It\u2019s competitive and the team pushes you. So, I\u2019m trying to find my place and trying to do a good job and make them glad that they hired me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Eight races into his NBC Sports broadcasting gig, Dale Earnhardt Jr. conceded it\u2019s been a legitimate learning experience, but he\u2019s loving the opportunity and figuring out how to be a good student of the occupation. This weekend, the two-time Daytona 500 winner will drive the Chevrolet pace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":14250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[167,16],"class_list":["post-21763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/MENCS_ChampsWeek_EarnhardtJr_Appreci88ion1_112817.jpg?fit=4488%2C2992","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5F1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21767,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21763\/revisions\/21767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}