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Dale Earnhardt Jr Reveals “Bucket List” Entry That Was Made a Reality by the Most Successful Non-American Stock Car Racer

Published 02/24/2023, 5:37 PM EST

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It always feels like a dream come true when an item is ticked off your bucket list. Dale Earnhardt Jr, despite having achieved as much as he has, still has quite a few things on his bucket list. He was quick to reveal one of those items in the recent episode of his podcast “The Dale Jr. Download.”

Given his reputation and the empire that he has built, there is very little that Dale Jr cannot achieve on his own. Yet, there are certain accomplishments that he still seeks. His close friend and one of the most successful non-American stock car racers came to his rescue recently. And there is no way the former Hendrick Motorsports driver could have anticipated this.

A long-time wish of Dale Earnhardt Jr comes true

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Junior confirmed during the podcast that he will be going to Le Mans this year. He also talked about his long-time desire to experience the race.

“Maybe We’ll Go Run Le Mans” – Dale Earnhardt Had Plans To Compete In Iconic Race After NASCAR

The JR Motorsports co-owner said, “As a grown-up, as a race fan all my life, the idea of going to Le Mans has been on my bucket list and I have wanted to go so badly. And Ron Fellows, a driver for the Corvette Program for years and an incredibly great friend of mine and just a great person has invited me and asked me to go and we could never really get it lined up.

And I’m like just one of these days, I’m going to get there ’cause it is to me, one of the most important motorsport events in our history, in the world. So we would love to go, so we are going.”

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For those unaware, Ron Fellows is a Canadian-origin racer and holds the record of winning the most races by a foreign-born racer in NASCAR’s top three series. The 63-year-old was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2012. Interestingly, Ron wasn’t the only one to offer Dale the chance to be at Le Mans.

Dale Jr even had the opportunity to drive in Le Mans

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The Garage 56 project gathered a lot of excitement after its announcement in March 2022. The program is a collaborative effort of NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, and Goodyear to participate in Le Mans. Interestingly enough, last year Junior was asked to consider the opportunity to drive in Le Mans, but he decided to relinquish the opportunity.

Later on, Junior gave the reason for refusing the offer, saying, “I think they need to have drivers in that car that will devote 100% to the effort. They’re gonna need a lot of testing. They’re gonna need their drivers willing to do a lot of physical testing but also a lot of sim work.”

“I would not be wanting or willing to do all that work,” added.

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Nevertheless, the two-time Daytona 500 winner is glad to get the chance to go to Le Mans, irrespective of the capacity in which he goes.

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Written by:

Priyank Harikrishna Mithani

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Priyank Mithani is a NASCAR writer at Essentially Sports. Having completed his graduation degree in Engineering, he pursued a career in the Media & Entertainment industry. With a zeal to write creative content, he started his journey as a freelancer.
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Edited by:

Nischal Kandpal