Dale Earnhardt Jr reveals aspect of NASCAR career that he HATED

Dale Earnhardt Jr has opened up on one aspect of his NASCAR career that he says he hated.

The 50-year-old raced in the Cup Series from 1999 right through until 2017, enjoying tremendous success during that time. Despite never winning a championship, Earnhardt Jr did win 26 Cup Series races, including two Daytona 500s in 2004 and 2014. On top of that, he was also voted as the Cup Series' most popular driver every year from 2003 to 2017.

But, despite a lengthy career and the success that came with it, there was one aspect of it all that he detested — practice.

That's right, on a recent podcast appearance, the NASCAR legend revealed that he used to hate that aspect of racing, labeling it 'monotonous and boring'.

“I hated practice," Earnhardt Jr explained on the Bussin' With The Boys podcast. "Because practice was a lot of times, like testing."

Dale Earnhardt Jr hated NASCAR practice

Earnhardt Jr continued: "In testing, you go to a racetrack in the middle of the week, weeks before you’re going to race there, and you’re usually there by yourself. You’re out there running alone, run five or 10 laps, and then make a change. It’s very monotonous and boring."

"You almost get bored of telling the feedback — ‘Okay, that made it a little better.’ ‘I didn’t feel anything.' 'We’re not doing nothing here, I’m just spinning my wheels.’ You’re just bored to death.

“When you practice on the race weekends, it’s the same thing, there’s no checkered flag, no winners or losers, it was maybe an hour. I just hated to do it. I wanted to race, the race was fun, but the practice was kind of boring.”

Despite his hatred of the sessions, Earnhardt Jr went on to reveal that he had a moment of clarity at Kansas, with five races to go in his Cup Series career, where he suddenly realised that he should have valued the sessions more.

"I was in my car and it just dawned on me that there’d be a day where I’d never practice again,” Earnhardt added.

“I was just sitting in my car and in my garage stall, and would say, yeah, I’m going to miss this part. I hated this part, but I should have appreciated it more.

“I’m going to miss watching my guys that I love, going to miss my guys that work, going to miss taking this car into them and ask them to fix it, that it’s not working right or doesn’t steer right and get them to make it work, saying the car doesn’t turn right and they’re going to try and fix it. I’m going to miss that puzzle and work on it.”#

The NASCAR legend concluded: “I knew I was going to miss driving in the race,” Earnhardt said. “I knew I’d miss the competition, but it was the prep work that I thought I hated that I wound up missing as well.”

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