NASCAR is an amalgamation of thrilling opportunities as well as heartbreaking losses. While the glitters of race wins are showcased more often, the drivers who could not keep up fall back into the shadows. Dale Earnhardt Jr is well aware of this fact and did not shy away from revealing a bitter truth to his podcast audience.

Mark McFarland used to drive for JR Motorsports a long time ago, and his racing stint is now a fading memory for most people. However, Dale Jr is on a mission to revive untold stories about NASCAR people not in the limelight. Yet the topic of McFarland is a hard and emotional one for Jr, as an ex-JRM member shared recently.

Dale Earnhardt Jr plucks the courage to face the past

Dale Jr recently invited Team Penske manager Jefferson Hodges to an episode of Dale Jr Download. And soon after, the two began digging up tear-jerker memories from their time working together. Hodges broached the topic of Mark McFarland leaving JR Motorsports, a topic that is a little remorseful for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Jr asked Hodges about his final six months in JRM, a time when McFarland got hurt. Hodges replied: “So I knew that Mark getting hurt was a bigger deal than just Mark getting hurt. Physically, he was gonna recover from it. The problem was, Martin Truex Jr who was a two-time Xfinity champion, and Robby Gordon who would drive the wheels off anything, were who was gonna replace Mark. And the experience alone that they had was gonna help accelerate everything, right?”

Then Hodges flipped to the darker side of the story. “Like Mark didn’t know what was right or wrong. That’s how him and I had raced, like we just raced and learned as we went. All these things, they were getting ready to come out, right? Everyone that was pulling the wool over their eyes, pointing their finger at Mark, which there was a lot of it, they were getting ready to get exposed. And all this stuff was magically gonna get fixed at the expense of Mark’s injury.”

Hodges then revealed his real reason for leaving JR Motorsports: “It wasn’t in the plan, for sure. Once you guys had released Mark, I took it personal.”

In 2006, Mark McFarland was released from JR Motorsports, and his No. 88 Chevy was taken over by Martin Truex Jr. He had ranked 22nd so far in the Busch Series competition. At that time, Dale Earnhardt Jr had cited a concern for delivering a level of performance to sponsors as a reason for McFarland’s release.

This change brought a lot of disappointment and uncertainty for McFarland, who himself had stated that his transition from a racer to a crew chief was a tough one.

McFarland highlighted winning, whether behind the wheel or in the pit box

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Mark McFarland had flagged off his journey as a racer. He won 16 of 18 Late Model races at the now-closed Old Dominion Speedway in Virginia. But after his failed stint in JR Motorsports, winds of change blew in his career. His destiny was to become a crew chief, but he did not accept the change so wholeheartedly. But, in 2020, he gave top priority to winning a race.

“When I first started crew chiefing, I still had that desire to drive,” he said. “I had to do it to pay the bills but I still wanted to go out and drive. But when I started to put all of my attention to being a crew chief is when I started to have some real success at it. Driving race cars used to be at the front of my mind and now it’s more in the back of my mind. It’s still there but that competitive fire is there to win races as a crew chief now. A win is a win whether you are driving or the crew chief.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr is laudable for bravely facing a thorny incident from the past. Bringing out more such untold stories about NASCAR’s shadow men will enlighten fans about a world beyond the glamor.

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