NASCAR: How Dale Earnhardt Jr. annoys Martin Truex Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that a few of his statements in the broadcast booth annoy some NASCAR drivers, including close friend Martin Truex Jr.

After retiring from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition following the 2017 season, 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. has still managed to stick around the sport he knows and loves.

In addition to owning Xfinity Series team JR Motorsports and still getting behind the wheel of one of his cars for one race per year, a tradition he plans to continue in 2021, he has served as an analyst in the NBC booth for Cup Series races since 2018. He also recently announced an exciting new partnership with Nicorette in which he is aiming to get smokers to quit smoking like he did many years ago.

When discussing whether or not being up in the booth has changed his perspective about NASCAR after two-plus decades behind the wheel, Earnhardt shared a story about Martin Truex Jr., one of his closest friends away from the track, to illustrate just how much his perspective has, in fact, changed.

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“I have friends like Martin Truex Jr. that race today that is annoyed by me,” Earnhardt told Beyond the Flag.

“It’s so funny. I’ll call Martin and be like ‘We got a hunting trip planned’ or something and we’ll get in a conversation and he’ll tell something that I did that annoyed him and I’m like ‘Martin, it ain’t nothing personal, buddy! We’re just up there in that booth trying to sell tickets and trying to get people interested in what’s going on!’

“I said something about I didn’t think he was going to win the championship…when him and the 22 [Joey Logano] were going at it that year, I was like ‘Martin is not going to do anything! He’s too nice!’, and what happened at Homestead? The 22 goes around him on the outside and Martin never did anything! He just sat there and watched it happen!”

At Martinsville Speedway during the round of 8 of the playoffs, Logano moved Truex out of the way in the final corner to win and clinch a spot in the Championship 4.

“He may have won the battle, but he ain’t winning the damn war. I’m not going to let him win it. I’m going to win it,” Truex said after that race.

Both drivers advanced to the Championship 4 and ended up being the two drivers battling for the title late.

But Logano prevailed after passing Truex on the outside, thus winning the “war”, his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship.

“And I gave Martin a hard time because he’s too nice,” Earnhardt continued. “And the reason I can say that is because I was the same way in my own career. I should’ve roughed up a lot of guys that didn’t get roughed up that deserved it.

“I can say that about Martin because we’re friends and I know him, but when he hears it he goes ‘Man, why you gotta say that? That made me mad!’ I’m like ‘Well it’s okay it made you mad! I’m just calling it like I see it and that’s what the fans want to hear.’ So it’s pretty funny, it’s a lot of trivial stuff like that.”