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This past weekend, Darlington Raceway hosted a grand celebration of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary. This event honored many of its 75 greatest drivers. In case you are not aware, NASCAR recently expanded their 25-year-old list by adding 25 new names to it. This update is built upon the original 50 greatest drivers list, which was compiled for the 50th anniversary back in 1998.

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However, Dale Earnhardt Jr, a recent addition to this esteemed list, couldn’t help but express his amusement.

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He humorously critiqued the design aesthetics of the merchandise that NASCAR provided for the occasion.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr comically critiques NASCAR’s T-Shirt design aesthetics

Junior, on his Dale Jr Download podcast, stated, “So I get a picture of the shirt and there’s a white one and a gray one. And I’ll be honest, the white one looked identical to the shirts that inspection, tech inspectors officials wear. So I joked when I saw it, ‘Am I going to inspect the winner of the race, after all, is said and done?’ That would be something if I could just I probably just splat in there they’d never even know it.”

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“So I was like, ‘Hey, I ain’t wearing that damn shirt. It’s goofy that I don’t wear my shirt with my damn name on it… This shirt’s silly looking, it’s got Dale Earnhardt Jr on it… But it’s got this cool emblem on right?… I don’t want to sh*t on it too bad, but it’s got these pockets on the front.”

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Subsequently, Junior’s co-host, Mike Davis, mentioned that the pockets exactly looked like a place to “keep some lures in” when out fishing.

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Dale continued, “So I said, Hey, bring me a T-shirt. Get a T-shirt as that emblem on it. The 75 NASCAR 75th anniversary emblem… We found a gray T-shirt, had a big giant badass 75th-anniversary emblem on the back and on the front. I’m like man I’m representing NASCAR…”

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Junior gives his honest take on wearing the shirt for the gathering

Later in that same podcast, Junior candidly shared his initial plan to forgo wearing the commemorative T-shirt for the occasion. Despite his initial reluctance, he ultimately donned the shirt. Not one to s hy away from expressing his views, he went on to provide an overall honest assessment of the T-shirt’s design.

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Junior continued with his story and said, “But I get there and I’m like if I’m gonna wear this T-shirt and not the gray shirt I need about 20% non-participation on the shirt. So anything over 80% as far as other people wearing theirs, they’re not going to wear it. And it was like 99% of everybody had it on… Jeff Gordon, he refused to put it.”

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Meanwhile, Mike Davis made a notable mention that Richard Petty too had refrained from donning the shirt.

Junior then concluded, “I’m sitting there, I’m like yeah we’ll put the shirt on. So I put the shirt on. And it wasn’t as bad as I thought, I’ll be honest.”

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After all, Junior had to don the shirt provided by NASCAR. What else could he do? Be the odd one out? But it was nice that he did not find it to be as bad as he had thought it would be. Regardless, Junior taking a dig at NASCAR’s T-Shirt design choice was one funny story.

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Written by

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Srijan Mandal

1,061 Articles

Srijan Mandal is a NASCAR writer at EssentiallySports. With a Master's Degree in Journalism from a top institution, Srijan has written over 1000 articles across various platforms. His passion for racing began at a young age and has only grown stronger over time. From Formula 1 to NASCAR and from World Rally Championship to World Endurance Championship, Srijan has followed and studied all aspects of these thrilling sports. Srijan's passion for racing extends beyond writing. He is an avid participant in professional open-wheel sim racing and enjoys producing music, which he shares on popular streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music under the moniker "Lunaprism".

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Ranvijay Singh

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