Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls out one failing to do ‘justice’ to Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR career
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently shared his thoughts on some overachievers and underachievers in the 2025 NCS season. Speaking of 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace, Dale Jr. said that his numbers and the statistics don't do justice to the kind of season he is having.
In the recent episode of his weekly podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about how, until now, Bubba Wallace was expected to have a good result only on certain tracks like Daytona, Kansas, and Talladega. However, Jr. believes that Wallace is having a much better season in 2025.
When his co-host told Dale Jr. that this year, Wallace has two top-5 and three top-10 results and has finished 20th or worse five times, the 26-time Cup Series race winner shared:
"The statistics don't do justice. The eye test says that Bubba's having a better year. In my mind, before this year, Bubba had those you know, handful of tracks where you're like, 'Okay, he could have a good run here.' He does have some history of running good at Kansas, Talladega, Daytona..." (53:10 onwards)
"Now he's doing it almost every week, now he's competitive and matching, if not beating his teammate (Tyler) Reddick at times. It was more consistently Reddick outrunning him week after week," Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.
Bubba Wallace made a strong impression in the season-opening Daytona 500 in his first full-time season in 2018 by finishing in the runner-up spot. He took his first NCS win at Talladega Superspeedway in 2, 21, becoming the second Black driver to win at NASCAR's top level.
The following season, he secured his second Cup Series victory at Kansas Speedway in commanding fashion, leading the final 67 laps of the race and finishing ahead of his team’s co-owner, Denny Hamlin.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the financial burden of jumping up to the Cup Series level
It is no secret that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt, co-owners of JR Motorsports, have been wanting to expand their operations into the Cup Series. Just having the opportunity to race in the Daytona 500 in this year's season-opening race was a dream come true for the Earnhardt siblings.
However, running a full-time Cup team is a different beast altogether, as explained by Jr. himself on the 'Bussin’ With The Boys' podcast. He spoke about how proud he feels of what JRM has achieved in the Xfinity Series and that many of his drivers have gone on to race in the Cup Series.
However, he noted that running a full-time Cup campaign can cost around $100 million per year, which is a financial risk he isn't willing to take at the moment.
"There are only so many charters, so to acquire one, you’ve got to buy one from somebody, and they’re selling for anywhere from $25 to $40 million. So you’ve got to buy the charter, and then you’ve got to buy the cars, they’re $350,000 apiece, and then you’ve got to have an engine program, you’ve got to upscale employees. To race full-time in the Cup Series, you might be able to do it on $20 million a year." (2:18:20 onwards)
"So it’s $100 million to get started to buy a charter or two, and then have the funding to run at that level," he added.
For these reasons, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is unwilling to risk his family's financial future. Instead, he is exploring partnerships with investors or other existing sports franchises to share the financial burden and make the move to the Cup Series more sensible.