Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not in the business of buying a charter from Stewart-Haas Racing or being a NASCAR team owner. On the Dale Jr. Download podcast, the two-time Daytona 500 winner explained why he does not want to buy a charter.
“I believe they’re going to be more valuable,” Earnhardt said. “But if I park that money in the charter, it’s not like a price of stock that I can turn around and sell. If you’re going into ownership, you’re in it for life and it would be something that would probably pass on to your kids. I would rather do something else with that money for the benefit of my girls.
“…I’m not buying a charter and putting millions of dollars away into something that I can’t then recoup or sell for a profit. I feel like that would be wrong of me because of our legacy and my last name to buy into a charter then turn around and sell it a couple years later and try to reap a profit. If you’re going to get into this, you got to get in with commitment, not for the money. We’ve always raced to win a race and compete not thinking about it as a way to profit.”
Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. be a NASCAR team owner?
Earnhardt went on to talk about how he and his sister, Kelly Earnhardt Miller, have talked about getting into ownership. They’ve had some opportunities, but it never worked out. However, that doesn’t mean they have stopped looking to be owners.
“We’re still talking to people,” Earnhardt added. “We’re still at the table talking to different teams about maybe partnering or investing. We’re always open to hearing what somebody thinks about what a partnership with us would look like. But none of them at this point have been like, ‘Oh man that’s a win for everybody.’
“For there longest time, me and Kelly thought if were going to race in the Cup Series, we wanted to own and operate. We want to race it out of our building, we wanted to be able to choose crew chiefs and mechanics. We wanted to be the reason or be part of what the car was either successful or winning races or doing well on the track.”
While it doesn’t look like Earnhardt will be an owner soon, he’s not saying it will never happen. “Right now, it doesn’t; look favorable for us to ever own a charter outright,” he said. “Something major would have to change in the sport.”
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