He acted like one out there today. As for business success, he owes 99% of it to his father. No wonder his own step-mother despises him.
How do you know his stepmother despises him?
I just love how so many think they know this man, but know nothing at all. Mostly just jealous of his success.
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Passion of Dale Jr. fosters sweeping business empire
Inside NASCAR: Most popular driver establishes model
By Raygan Swan, NASCAR.COM
February 11, 2009
03:58 PM EST
Dale Earnhardt Jr. once said if you can have a good time doing business and break even you're doing well, but if you're not having fun you better be making some money.
Needless to say, the scrawny towhead kid from Kannapolis, N.C., raised on simple family values is having his cake and eating it, too; Earnhardt is having a blast and making too much cash to count.
The 34-year-old community-college graduate is a proven entrepreneur and can walk into a boardroom with the same confidence and passion he carries climbing into the driver's seat of a race car. He forges multi-million dollar partnerships and signs NFL-sized endorsements all while chilled out in a pair of jeans and the shelltoe adidas Superstars.
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“Once you get the ball rolling, the thing pretty much takes care of itself.”
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DALE EARNHARDT JR.
Earnhardt's face is virtually on every purchasable product in America from candy bars to clothing. Be it a Dale Jr. binky or a Dale Jr. garden accessory, the selection is so vast you could furnish your entire house with his likeness. He controls 40 percent of the marketplace for licensed product sales for NASCAR drivers and sold at least 20 million units last year.
But Earnhardt set a major tone for his business future and career in 2007 when he opened up the JR Motorsports shop in Mooresville, N.C. Housing not only his Nationwide Series team but his licensing, marketing, fan and brand initiatives, the building is 66,000 square feet of massive venture space. All while keeping the Earnhardt business model at the forefront: authenticity, common sense and a strong handshake. These are all the tools on which Junior relies to run his business empire.
“Heads will roll. No, that's my motto at JR Motorsports,” laughed Earnhardt, waiting to answer dozens of reporters at Daytona International Speedway. “Heads will role, that's what we like to say.”
Hardly. A narcissistic dictator is far from Earnhardt's in-the-office demeanor. His employees say he handles the day-to-day pressures with a “laid back grace” and maintains the down-to-earth persona fans have grown to love since the driver appeared on the NASCAR scene nearly a decade ago.
Of the many hats Dale Earnhardt Jr. wears, the helmet comes first.
“They know I'm just a normal damn dude. I can't fool them,” said Earnhardt, who just like his father wanted to pursue his own business. Both began their ventures through team ownership and grew their brands through marketing, endorsements and licensed merchandise.
Now, Earnhardt is expanding his portfolio into assets he knows will be around long after he retires from racing. It's a thought the driver is not fond of as the pressure and desire to win a Cup title is top of mind, but so is the future of JR Motorsports and the opportunities to follow.
Among the first has been Whisky River, Earnhardt's signature nightclub that opened last spring .
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Dale doesn't attempt anything unless he is passionate about it. He is as real as they come.”
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“It's more successful than I anticipated by three or four times. I had a pretty good idea where I felt like I was going to be but it just quadrupled,” Earnhardt said of the club's overnight popularity in Charlotte's uptown.
A contracted management team runs the 10,000-square-foot watering hole where country stars and athletes come to play, but Earnhardt himself likes to keep his hands on the direction and feel of the club.
It's a direct reflection on Earnhardt's eclectic style and broad sweeping tastes. The ambiance inside is comparable to a scene from Urban Cowboy only updated with a uber modern décor and the swanky offerings that today's comforts demand.
“I think I enjoy the bar the most. I'd always wanted to get involved in ownership of a nightclub of some sort, because I really enjoy the entertainment side of it and I enjoy the camaraderie,” Earnhardt said. “It's kind of fun to be there and to see the employees working and see them taking pride in what they're doing, the meetings they have after every night, hearing everybody, how uniform everything is, how structured it is.
“I take a lot of pride in it.”
Pride in his work is what also led Earnhardt in 2006 to create his own production company, Hammerhead Entertainment. It's a small, unimposing building surrounded by woods and an unexplainable number of souped-up cars, but inside shows like Back in the Day and Shifting Gears are produced.
• Shop: Shifting Gears| Back in the Day
Taking a cue from John Madden's playbook, Earnhardt formed the production company to maintain more control over his footage and content in light of numerous video and commercial projects the driver performs each season.
“It was also a way to have direction over the production of footage. He loved watching Back in the Day and wanted to bring it to life and he did the pop-ups. That was his idea. Through Hammerhead, the production crew scripts it out so from a creative standpoint it's all Hammerhead and Dale Jr.,” said Kelley Earnhardt, president of JR Motorsports.
“Dale doesn't attempt anything unless he is passionate about it. He can't script or make up anything. He is as real as they come.”
Earnhardt also has real estate interests. Besides owning a company, he also has partnerships in two tracks: one in Paducah, Ky., and another in Mobile County, Ala. The Alabama Motorsports Park is under construction and boasts three racing venues: a road course, a karting track and an oval track that's being branded “A Dale Earnhardt Jr. Speedway.” Gates at the 2,400-acre complex are expected to be fully operational by 2011.
NONE OF THAT IS FROM DALE SR! WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO GO ON?