BROOKLYN, Mich. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not looking for an apology from Kevin Harvick, but the Hendrick Motorsports superstar would like to talk to the Stewart-Haas Racing driver in a private conversation.
Earnhardt, NASCAR’s 14-time Most Popular Driver who is retiring from full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition in November was blasted by rival and 2014 Cup champion Harvick earlier this week on his “Happy Hours” show on SiriusXM NASCAR radio.
Harvick claimed Tuesday that night that Earnhardt “stunted NASCAR’s growth” because he did not win enough.
Furthermore, Harvick said he believed attendance and television numbers would be stronger if Earnhardt was a perpetual contender.
CATCHFENCE.com asked Earnhardt Friday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway if Harvick owned him an apology.
“No,” Earnhardt replied. “I would appreciate a conversation. If we can have a conversation about it. I know Kevin, and I’ve known him for a long time. I feel like it would be great to sit down and discuss what he said, what he meant.”
Earnhardt said he was even open to discussing the dialogue he spoke with reporters last weekend at Watkins Glen regarding veteran drivers and their hefty salaries.
“We can even talk about my conversation from The Glen that he didn’t like,” added Earnhardt. “Just find some kind of common ground. That would be great. Like I said, I think a lot of the guy, and there is no denying what he did for our company over those few years.”
Earnhardt was referring to Harvick’s tenure at JR Motorsports, where he was a part-time driver for three seasons when SHR was a Chevrolet team.
“We were in a good place, but he put us to another level,” Earnhardt recalled. “His understanding of how to run a team, he changed how everyone in the company thought…all the guys downstairs as far as how to get cars better. He brought a really great mentality to the company that is still there today.”
Earnhardt said that while he didn’t win as much as some might have expected or hoped (26 wins in 19 seasons), he exceeded his own expectations.
“I have watched a lot of guys come in behind their dad and struggle,” Earnhardt explained. “There are a lot of guys that came in behind their dad and made it, but there are a lot of guys that didn’t. My dad put up some pretty steep numbers (76 Cup wins, seven championships), so I knew that was going to be a challenge trying to feel any kind of self-worth and doing well enough to satisfy people.
“I hated working for a living, so I was hoping, this is silly, but the way I thought in 1997 was ‘Man, if I could get into an XFINITY car and could win just one race, what do I need to do just to say that I think that is enough to keep me around?’ When I won my first few races in the XFINITY series, I thought ‘Well, alright. I’ll be able to keep a job in this sport for a while because of this little bit of success I’ve had.’”
Harvick believes seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports should be considered the sport’s most popular driver. Johnson, however, has often been criticized for being too vanilla of an athlete.
Earnhardt rebutted.
“I didn’t come here to be the most popular guy,” Earnhardt said. “I didn’t come in here thinking I was going to win seven championships. I just wanted to be able to do. I just didn’t want to flame out in two years and be gone and have to work. Honestly. I just wanted to be able to make a living doing it, and it has turned out to be much, much more than that for me.
“Every time I win a race, it is a surprise to me. Any time we did anything really big like win the XFINITY Series championship, or the Daytona 500, even to this day, it is hard for me to believe it happened to me. That is what I mean when I say I exceeded my own expectations because they were pretty low.
“I don’t know why, but I was a screw-off when I was a teenager. I was late to work every day. I didn’t put in the effort. I just didn’t have my head on straight, so I shouldn’t have amounted to much. But I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t gotten the opportunities I got with my father and luckily enough I had great people around me on the XFINITY deal that carried any of my own personal limitations until I finally figured it out late, late in my career what I really was supposed to be doing this whole time as far as my job and being an asset, and being accountable and applying myself. It took a while, but some of us are late bloomers.”
“I didn’t think I would win another race after 2010, 2011. I thought that was it. I thought I was going to squirm around in the back until everybody had just had enough of me. But somehow or another we got back in Victory Lane a few more times, so that was pretty cool.”
Harvick insisted after Cup practice Friday at MIS that his comments toward Earnhardt were not personal.
“The whole question started with what do you think about Dale Jr.’s performance,” Harvick told ESPN.com. “And we answered them honestly, and we answered the questions that they had, and it expanded into a conversation of the opinions and the things that I talked about. It wasn’t anything personal.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
