Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a NASCAR driver that has distinguished himself well above the pack. His plethora of successes has shown him to be one of the greatest racers of all-time. In his over two-decade racing career, he clinched a spot in the top ten over 200 times. It is a level of success that embellishes the lineage of successful NASCAR drivers he is part of.
Now retired, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has continued his relationship with car racing as a team owner and as a broadcaster. It has made him a lot of money and has helped him establish a happy family with his longtime girlfriend, Amy Reimann.
Dale Earnhardt Jr Early Life and Background
Born Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr., the famous NASCAR racer, was born on October 10, 1974, in Kannapolis, North California. He was raised by his parents Dale Sr. and Brenda Lorraine (née Gee). Dale Jr. has three siblings; elder half-brother Kerry from his father’s first marriage, elder sister Kelley, and a younger half-sister from his father’s third marriage.
He comes from a line of successful professional drivers. His father, Dale Sr., was a successful NASCAR driver and a NASCAR Hall of Famer. His paternal grandfather was a stock car fabricator while his maternal grandfather, Robert Gee Sr., was a NASCAR car builder. Little wonder that Dale Earnhardt Jr. found his way into the racing world at the end of the day.
It took a while before he did, though. Before getting into racing fulltime, Dale Jr. and his sister Kelley lived with their mother after his parents got a divorce. Brenda surrendered custody of the two children to Dale Sr after a house fire destroyed her home, and left her with no financial support. At the age of 12, his father sent him to a military school as a result of his delinquency. Weeks afterward, Kelley quit high school to join Dale Jr.
A Look At His Career and Achievements
Dale was 17 years old before he got into racing professionally. He participated in his first race in a 1979 Monte Carlo race car he owned with his brother Kerry. While honing his skills and participating in several races with his siblings, Dale worked at his father’s dealership as a mechanic. He did this while also attending Mitchell Community College to earn an associate degree in automotive technology.
His racing prowess earned him nine Busch Series races between 1996 to 1997. He started appearing in the Winston Cup Series in 1998, with his debut race at the Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. In 2000, he went full-time in the Winston Cup series.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s racing career is decorated with accolades. He won two Daytona 500 races in 2004 and 2014. His win in the Daytona International Speedway earned him the nickname Pied Piper of Daytona. He is also a fifteen-time winner of the Most Popular Driver Award, thanks to his races between 2003 and 2016.
He raced in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 631 times, winning 26 of them and appearing in the top ten 260 times. His first race in the series was in 1999, and his first win in 2000. He had his last win in 2015, two years before his last race in the series. His career in the Monster Energy Series lasted for close to 19 years.
Professionally, he has also been in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He has had 140 races so far in his Xfinity career, winning 24 of them and appearing in the top ten for 92 of the races. His first race was in 1996, with his first win in 1998. He had his last win in 2016 and ran his last race in 2018.
Dale Has Kept Busy Post-Retirement
It is not easy going from being a daily part of a high-energy industry like car racing to a quiet life in retirement, which is why Dale did not do so. A series of concussion-symptoms that began in 2016 eventually forced him to into retirement in 2017. However, the legendary racer has continued racing, albeit part-time.
He irregularly competes in the Xfinity Series and has competed in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200. Dale competes in these races under the banner of his team, JR Motorsports. Speaking of team ownership, Dale has also spent his retirement nurturing his team to glory.
He co-founded the team with his sister, Kelley Earnhardt, and the owner of his former team, Rick Hendrick, in 2006. The team has eight drivers in its employ and has competed in more than 1300 races, the majority of which are in the Xfinity Series. So far, they have 51 of them, finished in pole positions 23 times, and won three championships.
Dale is also part of the broadcasting team for NASCAR on NBC, as a color commentator. Before that, in 2016, shortly before he retired, he worked as a guest analyst for Fox and NBC.
Aside from broadcasting, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spends his time on his businesses and social causes. He has been a supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation for years and has granted more than 250 wishes thus far.
Dale Earnhardt Jr is Worth $400 Million
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR career is one rife with critical and financial acclaim. He has made a fortune through his career and is considered one of the wealthiest NASCAR racers in history.
Dale has an estimated net worth of $400 million, made from his career, endorsements, merchandising, and other business ventures. At his peak years as a racer, he made an average of $25-30 million per year, at least $20 million per year between 2004 and 2017.
His business ventures, outside of the earlier mentioned race team, include Hammerhead Entertainment, co-building, and co-owning Alabama Motorsports Park and Paducah International Raceway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. also owns a signature line of eyeglass frames and has a Chevrolet car dealership in Tallahassee, Florida.
Ever the racer with an entrepreneurial mind, Dale is also the co-owner of FilterTime. He owns several Whiskey River Beer and Wings restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dale’s identity has also fetched him a significant amount of money.
His voice was featured in the Scarface: The World is Yours video game and has been on the cover of the EA Sports NASCAR game series twice. He used to host a show, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Unrestricted on SiriusXM Radio, and is a streamer for iRacing.com on Twitch.
Other noteworthy sources of income from endorsements include Budweiser, Axalta, Goody’s, and Wrangler. During his full-time career as a racer, he made up to $23 million in endorsements alone in one year. He has also made a significant amount of money from merchandizes, which were big movers in his active years. In his peak days as a racer, they reportedly made up to 25% of NASCAR’s merchandise revenue.
How Does He Spend His Money?
As his net worth has shown, a lot of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s income goes into investing in other businesses. But the few left in his bank account has been spent on charity work, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation we mentioned earlier.
He also spends his money collecting wrecked race cars, in a property in North Carolina. Other assets in his portfolio include a couple of private jets, a Cessna Citation Latitude, and a Learjet 60. The legendary NASCAR racer also owns a few homes.
One of them is a 200 acres property in Mooresville, North Carolina. He bought a $2.4 million home for his wife in 2009 and owns a $3.7 million home in Key West, Florida.
Exploring Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Family Life
For all the riches and success of Dale Earnhardt Jr, he has maintained a simple and quiet life as a family man. He began a relationship with Amy Reimann in 2009. Amy is an interior designer who is a former college cheerleader.
She was a project coordinator in the private architecture firm Wakefield Beasley & Associates. Reimann now works as Director of Charlotte Studio at the Micamy Design Studio, working on a variety of high-end projects.
While their relationship itself was scandal-free, its start was full of one. Dale and Amy reportedly began their relationship while she was married to a Tommy Cook. Eventually, she parted ways with Cook in 2008, and they started their relationship officially in 2009.
Dale Earnhardt got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Amy Reimann, on June 17, 2015. They tied the knot at the Richard Childress’ Childress Vineyards at Lexington, North Carolina, on December 31, 2016. It happened after the racer received his 14th Most Popular Driver Award in the same year. The couple reportedly spent $2 million on the wedding ceremony.
In 2017, he announced with his wife that they were expecting their first child. Their daughter, Isla Rose Earnhardt J was born on April 30, 2018. Two years after the birth of Isla, Dale and his wife are expecting another child, following an announcement in March 2020. The family also has a dog, Gus, which has been with them for years.
