“I feel good; I feel young,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in the last years of his full-time racing. That is the kind of mentality every motorsports athlete needs to harbor at any age. In NASCAR, they get into a high-powered race car and drive around high-banking circuits at 195 mph. Anything can be a stressful factor at the time, as risks flood from all corners. So Dale Jr. ranks among the tougher drivers who would face any challenge head-on. He uses this attribute in a new daring pursuit as well. Although it endears us further to the veteran driver, his wife is definitely not okay with it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals an iron will

After retirement, racers pick up several kinds of hobbies to pass the time. But after Dale Earnhardt Jr. hung up his NASCAR firesuit, he worked on his podcast and managed his race team. However, on the fun side, he had a plethora of hobbies like biking or building Lego pieces. His wife, Amy, particularly objected to the latter practice, that Dale Jr. picked up from William Byron. Recently, he revealed a fascination for another pursuit, and his wife approved it at first.

On a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download, the power couple made a joint appearance. And they talked about family stuff, including one time when their daughter Isla missed out on a hot air balloon landing in their backyard. Junior said how his children also shared a liking for the activity, although one of them missed it. “Amy was like, ‘Don’t tell Isla!’ She was in Disneyland and she’s gonna be mad she wasn’t home for the (hot air balloon).”

Hopping on hot air balloons is no mean thing; you cannot do it if you have vertigo. It requires loads of courage to watch yourself float in mid-air several feet above the ground. So Dale Earnhardt Jr. professed a personal technique to handle such daredevil activities. “I have this weird…maybe not weird, maybe somebody else does this…But anytime that I’m going to go do something that is risky, I make a deal with myself the moment before I go do it, that hey, if I’m going to go do this, I’m totally okay and this is how I go.”

And Amy had the perfect response to it, comparing this thought with her husband’s racetrack passion. “That is a race car driver’s mentality if I have ever heard one.” She confessed she would be praying to the Almighty in a fatal situation. “I don’t do that…I’m praying, please don’t take me today.” On the other hand, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would face demise with a straight face: “I don’t want to go that way, but I make a deal in my mind. Like, alright, we’re going to fly today. And if this is how it goes, this is how it goes. It’s predetermined, right, and whatever I have to tell myself.”

That is when Amy hilariously decided her husband would be cut out from her hot air balloon plans. “So I’ve just decided you and I are not flying in the hot air balloon together.” Despite Dale Jr’s proud statement, there was a time when another intense sport caught him as a nervous wreck.

Another hobby from a competitor

Getting influenced by Jimmie Johnson, the Cup Series racer got into bike riding. Other drivers like Landon Cassill, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, Josh Wise, Trevor Bayne, and former driver Carl Edwards also ranked in this biker group. They pushed the pedals of a bike to relax after a weekend of ferocious pedaling inside race cars.

However, before Dale Jr. became a little acquainted with the calming sport, it made him a nervous mess. He confessed his feelings back then: “For whatever reason, I was super nervous and couldn’t keep my hands from moving. I’m shaking and all over the road, and Jimmie and them are like six inches from the shoulder.” 

Then the worst thing happened, which most rookie bicycle riders are well-familiar with. “I’m like, I can’t ride that close to the shoulder. I’m all over the place and I’m wobbling all over the damn road and this guy goes by and flips me off. I guess I kind of ticked him off. Anyways, I was surprised at how rude drivers are on the road.”

Evidently, Dale Earnhardt Jr. could not display his don’t-care attitude in that situation. Yet he would need to work hard to rank a hot air balloon seat alongside Amy.