Dale Earnhardt Jr makes very honest admission | Sports News

Dale Earnhardt Jr. admitted he might have been “more supportive and helpful” during his days with Hendrick Motorsports.

While he was speculating on the game as a entire, the 51-year-old additionally mirrored on his racing profession in a current interview. Earnhardt Jr. was requested in regards to the one remorse of his profession, and he insisted it got here during his time with Hendrick Motorsports.

Earnhardt Jr. was at Hendrick Motorsports for 10 seasons, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet from 2008 by way of 2017 after leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. During his tenure, he competed in 340 races and earned 9 of his 26 profession NASCAR Cup Series wins with the group. 

While the numbers are stable, Earnhardt Jr. instructed Hard Rock Bet that he wasn’t the best teammate for large names like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. In his thoughts, he was too “selfish.”

“I think in the first half of my career, I was competitive with my teammates, and while I was okay with seeing them do well, I was somewhat envious, and it was me who was supposed to be the best car in the organization, in my mind,” Earnhardt Jr. mentioned. 

“My teammates were almost a complementary piece to the whole puzzle, and that probably wasn’t the best way to be a good teammate. I wasn’t really as supportive, or I didn’t lend them advice, or try to really help them as much as I probably could have.

“I went to Hendrick Motorsports and then I wasn’t the big man on campus anymore. I was working with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who had won championships and had a ton of seniority at Hendrick Motorsports, and I learned what it was like to be on the other side of things, and I learned what it was like to watch them be good teammates to me, to be supportive, to be helpful.”

He added: “I’m fully transparent. If I feel like I didn’t hit the target, or if I feel like I didn’t live up to my potential, I’m completely comfortable telling you that and I definitely could have been a better teammate when I was younger, but man, when you’re in your late 20s, and things are happening so fast for you, it’s very selfish.

“It’s a very selfish thing when you’re in sports as an athlete, it can be easy to be selfish, and typically being selfish can be rewarding in competition. But I just think there were times where I could have been a better teammate, more supportive, more helpful. But I really didn’t know how to do that.”

Hendrick Motorsports will hope the four-car lineup of Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman can work successfully collectively within the season-opening Cup Series race, the Daytona 500, on Sunday, Feb. 15.