While siblings Kelley Earnhardt and Dale Jr. have created their own racing empire, they were far from Dale Sr.'s team, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (DEI). But even then, the two came away with valuable racing lessons.

 During her recent appearance on ‘Business of Motorsports’ in an interview with Jeff Gluck, Kelley Earnhardt spoke about her early years in NASCAR and how working outside the family's organization helped her.

"We never got to work inside of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, or I didn't, I should say," she said. "Dale eventually, you know, got there. But I think that was helpful in the way to learn from other people and not have to worry about those family boundaries that happen, especially when you're less mature."

While working in college, Kelley began working at organizations like Sports Image, which later became Action Performance. She was already involved with racing, so growing at DEI seemed like the natural next step.

However, as Teresa admitted once before, longstanding tensions with their stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, stood in the way of that. And when Dale Sr. passed away at Daytona, the rift grew deeper, with Dale Jr. even leaving the team. But even then, Kelley recalls all that she learned in those years at Sports Image and Action Performance.

"We learned from him and the way that he carried himself and the way that he did things and the business and all that I got to learn that sitting on the opposite side of the table at Sports Image, because I was, involved in being an account manager for some of his sponsors and so, he was the opposite side of the table putting the pressure on us on, what their expectations were and things like that and and how to live up to those expectations. So, I did get to learn a lot from him."

The Earnhardt siblings put that experience to good use when they founded their own racing company, JR Motorsports, in 2002. Since then, they have won the O'Reilly Auto Parts series on four occasions and have participated at the Daytona 500 in 2025 and 2026. Along the way, the two haven't forgotten all of their mentors.

"I've said this too often: once I came to work for Dale (Jr), I really leaned on other people in the industry like John Bickford, Jeff Gordon's stepfather, and Mr. Hendrick and so on and so forth to really, not reinvent the wheel and get good people around me that could continue to mentor and continue to teach, which I think is important," she said.

Today, Kelley Earnhardt continues to remain in the executive role at JR Motorsports, putting to use what she learned in her formative years of entering sports business. 

Kelley Earnhardt opens up about JR Motorsports' philosophy

JR Motorsports has established itself as one of the most successful teams in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series under the leadership of Dale Jr and Kelley Earnhardt.

And during a recent chat with JGR’s Heather Gibbs, Kelley Earnhardt revealed the main philosophy of the team. 

"Junior Motorsports doesn't do this to make money. We started our team because of the legacy of our family and our passion for racing. From the very first days, if we were able to just stay on the line of slightly profitable or not losing too much, that was good enough for us."(via Dirty Mo Media on X)

Today JR Motorsports has become the benchmark in O’Reilly, but their main goal over the years has remained the same, which is to safeguard and carry forward the family legacy. 

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar