Dale Earnhardt Jr Recalls Rival Matt Kenseth’s Moment of Agony at the Beginning of their Careers

In a recent episode of his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened up on one of his rivals. The former Hendrick Motorsports star has been in the sport for a long time and has developed many rivalries. Although he has never won a Cup Series title, he does boast of two titles in the Xfinity Series. He has also won three Xfinity Series championships as a team owner of JR Motorsports.

In the Dale Jr. Download podcast, he said the ex-Joe Gibbs Racing driver was his fierce competitor back in their Xfinity days. Earnhardt even recalled a hilarious moment that he shared with the said rival. However, the moment did not take place on the track, but during a photoshoot.

Dale Earnhardt Jr reminisces fond memories with Kenseth

The driver he mentioned was none other than Matt Kenseth. Earnhardt said the incident happened during a photo shoot for the ESPN magazine. “The one with me and Matt Kenseth with ESPN magazine we did when we were coming out of our rookie year. Coming out of or going into our rookie year, I can’t remember, it was right around there,” he said.

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“It was a funny photoshoot. You know Matt, he’s so hilarious. We might have talked about this in our podcast with Matt. Me and Matt raced in the Busch Series and I beat him both years in the championship. We know that he would come out and beat me in the Rookie of the Year title and win a championship. I never won a championship. So Matt obviously got over those two championship losses in the Xfinity Series.”

According to Dale Earnhardt Jr, they were at a photo shoot for ESPN. Apparently, they wanted him and Kenseth together on the magazine cover. Before long, the two drivers were sent to a particular room and made to stand in front of a screen. Once the photo op began, Kenseth was asked to stand behind Earnhardt Jr. As it turned out, he was not particularly thrilled at being asked to stand behind Dale Jr.

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What was Matt Kenseth so mad about?

Dale Jr continued, “He’s like, ‘Damn, I’m standing behind you. Why aren’t we side-by-side? Why do I got to stand behind you?’. Photographer’s like, ‘Okay Matt! Slide over a little bit, just a little bit further behind Dale’. So when you look at the picture, it’s like half his face, all me and half of Matt’s face just right off the side behind me.”

“As this photographer’s asking Matt to slide over. No, he’s not as far off as I thought. So Matt is grumbling in my ear going, ‘F*** this! Screw this. What the hell is this, man? Why do I got to be behind you?’. He was half joking, he wasn’t really that annoyed by it,” Earnhardt Jr. added.

Since then, Kenseth has gone on to have a fairly successful Cup Series career. To be precise, he won the 2003 Cup Series championship and has 39 Cup wins under his belt. As for Dale Jr, he has amassed 26 wins in his Cup Series career and a best finish of 3rd in the 2003 season.

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