Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals his favorite part of broadcasting NASCAR races

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is suddenly a broadcasting veteran as he enters his sixth season with NBC Sports.

Earnhardt Jr. will be in the booth alongside Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte for this Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway — the first Cup Series race of the 2023 season broadcasted on NBC. Ahead of his season debut, the 26-time winner sat down with Jeff Gluck of The Athletic for an exclusive interview. Earnhardt Jr. answered a variety of questions, including what keeps him coming back to the booth for more seasons.

Earnhardt Jr. said he loves seeing cars battling for position on the race track, referring to the 1979 Daytona 500 as the “pinnacle of NASCAR broadcasting.”

“What I love about broadcasting is talking about two cars battling,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I always point to the 1979 Daytona 500 as the pinnacle of NASCAR broadcasting. To me, that is the gold standard in terms of delivery. Ken Squier and David Hobbs were in the booth that day, and the way Ken delivered his excitement for what he was seeing was so perfect. So when you feel like you get that right, that is such a great feeling.

“Every time I go into a booth, I hope I get an opportunity to try to get it right. I’m not a play-by-play guy, but that’s a little bit of a play-by-play moment when you’re talking about a battle. Remember when we were at Kansas and Joey Logano was trying to beat Kevin Harvick? Me and Burton got to commentate a little bit and do some play-by-play-ish work in that moment. That is so fun.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves being inside the NASCAR on NBC booth

He added: “The air blocking is annoying and it’s annoying for the fans to go, ‘Man, this faster car can’t pass.’ But it was our job to make that exciting. It was our job to make you think about it differently and go, ‘Man, this is awesome. The faster car is trying to get around a slower car and it’s hard and it might happen. And if he pulls it off, oh man, we’re gonna be surprised.'”

Earnhardt Jr., 48, joined the NBC Sports booth in 2018, one year after his retirement after 18 years of full-time racing in the Cup Series. Among his career accomplishments: two Daytona 500 victories and a member of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list.

Earnhardt Jr. now enjoys getting to see the sport through a different lens.

“I feel like as a broadcaster, that’s your main responsibility,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “You go into that booth to make the fan at home realize how great a race it is in person. Even when you’ve got to carry a race that’s not quite as exciting, you don’t say, ‘It is what it is.’ Your job is to make it something, make it exciting, find something to talk about, find the battles, point the cameras there. There’s never a race that doesn’t have something compelling going on. So you’ve got to keep searching and looking and find it.”