Published 11/09/2022, 6:45 AM EST
Already sitting on the top of NASCAR’s richest driver mountain with an estimated net worth of around $300 million, Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell just short of adding a considerable sum to his bank account this weekend.
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This is because, despite having a superiority in the final four places for the Xfinity Series title, all three of Dale Jr’s JR Motorsports drivers fell short of winning the title in a race with a total prize pool of over $1.5 million.
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Now, as you’d expect, the NASCAR Hall of Famer was left heartbroken with a “gut punch” after losing to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs, he still admitted that the outcome was something inescapable.
“Hell, our guys were running into each other,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a recent episode of his podcast. “That was frustrating because they raced each other. I mean, it was inevitable, INEVITABLE, that our guys were gonna race each other because the #7 and the #9 were nearly dead equal.”
The former Hendrick Motorsports driver recalled how, watching the race unfold, he was wondering what would his drivers do as Ty Gibbs pulled further away from them.
“Both of them want to win, both of them have equal cars, they’d love to race the guy in front them but damn, they gotta get by each other first,” he described. “They gotta sort out that argument.”
“That was tough to watch..at the end of the day to lose after having three guys in there.”
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Will Dale Earnhardt Jr’s JR Motorsports make the step up to the Cup Series?
For quite some time now, there have been rumors, speculation, and official comments from Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself about his Xfinity Series team taking the next step and racing in the Cup Series.
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This was something that Junior’s sister and JRM’s newly appointed boss, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, recently spoke about.
DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA – AUGUST 30: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #8 Hellmann’s Chevrolet, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway on August 30, 2019 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
“We’re constantly talking about it,” she said. “Obviously, there’s a lot to learn about what it means to go Cup racing, especially under the charter situation. The charter and the new car are supposed to change the dynamics on the costs, but I think the jury is still out on that.”
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“We’re still working through all that.”