Although NASCAR races are often filled with entertainment and high-speed action for the viewer, the story is quite different for the driver.
Being behind the wheel of a stock car that goes up to 200 mph is anything but an easy task for a racer. Add to this the strategic implementation, the constant pressure, and the extreme focus required to stay on track.
Besides, the same cycle continues every week throughout the season, so it is surely bound to take a toll on the driver.
With this stress, it becomes pivotal for a driver to unwind after a race. On his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains how he unwound after racing back in the day.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Post-Race Unwinding Mantra
In his May 13th stream of ‘Dale Jr. Download,’ the NASCAR Hall of Famer addressed the questions of his fans in the ‘Ask Jr.’ segment of his podcast.
A Facebook user named Kevin asked Junior, “How do most drivers decompress after a race?”
Junior mentioned that every driver is different, so there was no one-size-fits-all answer for the question. However, when he was asked how he did, he replied without thinking or hesitating.
“I drank!” he said.
As the room burst out laughing, Junior confessed, “I catch a lot of hell for how much I talk about drinking beer and all that.”
He continued, “I know that it’s probably annoying to some people, but I was full of adrenaline after a race, and my weekend was working. I didn’t have a weekend.”
Dale Jr. then added that while most people worked during the week and did other activities like watching TV or fishing during the weekend, he did not have that choice. As a NASCAR driver, he would prepare for the races during the week and then implement it during the weekend.
“As soon as the race was over, I was like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m ready to blow off some steam.”
However, apart from Junior, no one else was ready to do that. After he came back from a race on Sunday, everyone at home would already be gearing up for the upcoming work week after their “fun” weekend.
Junior soon found a solution to this, though. He said:
“I’d call some friends who were also in the industry. They’re flying home from the race, and they’d come over to the house and we’d set up till 4 in the morning sometimes, see the sun come up, just bulls****ing, drinking, listening to music all Sunday night.”
Dale Jr.’s co-host, TJ Majors, chimed in and added that back in the day, they frequently used to hang out on Sunday.
“Before I traveled, the first time I moved down here, he used to call on the way home when I lived in a little grey house with Dil. He’d call on the way home, it was Sunday night, we would drink and hang out like that was like Friday,” Majors said.
Junior further added that those few hours every Sunday night, for him and his friends, were like the compression of the entire weekend.
He ended the question by saying, “Then you’d get up on Monday and have to shake off a hangover and get back to the routine.”