Dale Jr.’s nephew and Kelley Earnhardt’s son Wyatt seizes a landmark Limited Late Model moment for the first time
Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s 13-year-old nephew Wyatt Earnhardt Miller has just won his first Limited Late Model race at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway. Miller is the son of Kelley Earnhardt Miller, daughter of the legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Jr.’s sister.
It marked his second start in a Late Model feature at the historic racetrack. He started the race from the pole and led a few early laps before giving it away to fellow racer Zach Bruenger. However, Bruenger’s car went ablaze on Lap 32, thus giving the lead back to Miller.
The teenager then held off a fast-charging Aiden King throughout the remainder of the 40-lap event, en route to his maiden career sweep. Speaking of how things went down during the last couple of laps, Miller said:
“We had a really good car. I was catching Zach, and then he blew up. I think Aiden tried to rattle my cage, but it didn’t work."
Wyatt Earnhardt Miller's victory extends the legacy of the Earnhardt family at the 0.363-mile oval. His mother used to race there in the 90s, his grandfather in the 70s and his great-grandfather in the 50s. Even Dale Jr. ran there during his early racing days.
“The idea that that racetrack has survived to allow for that to happen is a cool thing. Pretty special,” the NASCAR Hall of Famer said during the latest episode of his Dale Jr. Download podcast.
“Wyatt has no clue, no understanding of how monumental that is for our family or even his mother. I called him before the race and I said, 'This is your first race. no pressure. I don't care where you finish. All I care about is that you cross the finish line.'" Dale Jr. added.
Wyatt Earnhardt Miller made his debut at Hickory Motor Speedway earlier this month and placed second that day, which was later announced by Dale Jr. himself through social media.
Dale Jr. doesn’t care about NASCAR’s “approval process”, says practice is the key
There have been a lot of talks about Katherine Legge’s NASCAR Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway last week. The British speedster entered the race as the driver of the No. 78 Live Fast entry but was ousted from contention when she spun out in a bad-aero situation.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. saw nothing wrong with Legge debuting in the top-most racing series of NASCAR or with the sport’s driver approval process. The problem, said the two-time Xfinity Series champion, lies in how much practice the drivers get ahead of each race.
Addressing the matter on Dale Jr. Download this week, the NASCAR veteran said:
“The conversation around practice is one that hasn’t gotten enough attention until probably the last 48 hours. There was Katherine Legge at Phoenix, stirred up a lot of conversation around the approval process for drivers in NASCAR. I don’t think there is a problem or a perfect solution for the approval process.“
“What I believe better serves that conversation is by talking about how practice might have helped her and the team improve the car. The teams aren’t saving money by not practicing. Let’s just say the teams are spending a million dollars less to not practicing comparable to what they were doing in 2019,” he added.
At the moment, the standard practice time for Group 1 and Group 2 on short tracks and road courses is 25 minutes. However, NASCAR doesn’t host practice sessions for superspeedways besides a 50-minute-qualifying session for the annual Daytona 500.