NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: CHAMPIONSHIP

November 9, 2024

Dale Earnhardt

Kelley Earnhardt Miller

Jim Pohlman

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the owners of JR Motorsports and the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Owner champions, and that is Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller.

Q. Dale, last year in this very room, you told me if Justin won the title, you were going to sit there however long it took to do the photos, the celebrations, whether it was four hours, eight hours, whatever it was. Is that still the plan?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, yeah, I came in here carrying a damn flag. We're full throttle tonight.

I asked Kelley where we were going to stay in Scottsdale.

I'm just excited for Justin. Obviously it's been an incredible career, and he's worked so hard to try to win championships over the years, but he's been an incredible -- he's just been an incredibly professional, kind, generous -- when you work with a lot of drivers, we have drivers that come through our program, and you want them all to sort of -- there's a lot of young guys that come through, and you want them to really understand what it takes outside the race car. They all think they've got the talent inside the race car to get it done, but you want them to understand all the things that need to be taken care of and handled outside of the car. Justin is the greatest example of that.

Obviously he's been with Brandt for a really long time, but any other partner that he's ever touched in our ecosystem loves him, and he goes above and beyond to give them all the time necessary and anything they need. That goes such a long ways for an owner. He's just perfect.

For all these years, he's really helped make our company better and helped make our partners feel appreciated, and he's done great things on the racetrack.

We just were missing this one, checking this one box. If it didn't get checked tonight, we were going to try again, but I told him before the race started -- I texted Jim and I said: All things considered, how do you feel about your car?

He gave me the rundown on that.

I came here today and just kind of looked around and just learned and gathered what I could, and I told Justin: They think we're out of it. We've got a bullet right here. This is an amazing race car, and they think we're out of it. They don't think we've got a shot. They just think there's three racing for this. This is the best spot to be in of the four. There's no pressure.

Now, he made it tough throughout the race. There were some moments. That's Justin. That's just the way Justin is.

The one thing that was unique tonight is when he had to dig a little deeper, he got it done, and there were some pretty incredible moments on those final probably 20 laps that I don't know that I even realized were -- I need to go watch this thing over again.

Just standing there in Victory Lane, listening to everybody chirping, talking about all the incredible moments, I've got to watch it over again. Because when you're sitting there living it and you're nervous as hell, you're not absorbing all the things that are -- that he's trying to do and did and succeeded in doing on the racetrack. And it was just incredible.

I'm happy for him. I probably will get in trouble for saying this. I didn't give one s--- about that Owner's Championship. I was like: I want my driver on that stage. That's all that matters to me. Especially with Justin being in the middle of this, I want it for him.

I really didn't even know where that netted out, to be honest with you. We had done the burnout, the celebration. I had no clue if we had won the owners. It didn't matter to me. I was so happy for Justin because he deserves it. He's a champion. He's good enough. Now he has it.

THE MODERATOR: We're also joined by the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion crew chief, and that is Jim Pohlman.

Q. Kelley, did you think it was just going to be Justin? He said it's Justin being Justin, but like we're going to throw away another one?

KELLEY EARNHARDT MILLER: Well, he just said there was something different about this one, and that's that Justin overcome. I got asked that earlier, and that's what happened. He dug deep.

And I think Jim is -- as much as Jim can chew his butt and tell him the real deal and be honest with what's going on, Justin is very accountable to Jim, and Jim just kept giving him information and telling him what they needed to do, and Eddie, as well, the spotter, just kept Justin on his marks.

There was a time during the race where Justin was through the roof, and I think that was even before the penalties that he was already on fire.

So yeah, tonight was unique in the fact that Justin just hung in there and fought back and came back. At lap 150 I was like, this is over. This is over for us. Then I couldn't believe lap -- six to go came, and I'm sitting there like, oh, my God, we've got a real shot at this. Then more cautions and more green-white-checkereds, and we finally did it. And I just can't believe it. It's incredible.

Q. Dale, we got sad news today, Bobby Allison's passing. I'm curious what your memories and thoughts were when you heard that news.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I had heard that Bobby was dealing with some challenges in the past several weeks, and he's a champion and left his mark on this sport, and we should celebrate him and remember the incredible moments that he might have -- whether it was a race you watched or an opportunity to actually get to be with him and talk with him.

I was kind of indirectly linked to Bobby working with the Allison brothers when they were building legends cars. That was my first job. I got a speeding ticket, and Dad told me to go get a job.

I got to know Donnie and all of the guys, and then they made me like the honorary member of the Alabama gang at one point, which was really nice because it was a really tight group there.

Getting to know Red Farmer and -- through all of that, I got to know Bobby better. And just an incredible career. So cool of NASCAR to acknowledge his win at Bowman Gray just weeks ago, and he'll be missed.

I remember when he was injured and how deeply that affected my dad. They were very close. I think that Bobby and Dad had a relationship there when Dad was young in '79, '80, '81, through that period. Bobby was very helpful. Dad would say that Bobby and Donnie were the ones that would actually talk to him and answer his questions and stuff.

They were pretty close, and I remember being young when all that was going on and how thankful we were that he was able to survive that.

I'll say this, too: I was at Dover, I think it was my first year as a broadcaster, so 2018, and I got in an elevator or something to go up to the booth, and Bobby walked in or came into the elevator, and I thought, man, of all the places he could be at his age, and he wants to be at Dover for a Cup race. Of all the places this man could be right now, and he's here. What a dedication, right, to the sport. He gave more than anybody I could imagine to the sport, and he continued to give and continued to be a part of it.

Q. Dale, you've been on this championship stage a couple of times for JRM. How is tonight different?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, obviously because of Justin's championship. We've had so many drivers come through the program, and it's been a pleasure, man, working with so many drivers. I told Sam Mayer on pit road tonight, I said, You're going to be so fun to race against. Wherever you go and whatever happens to you, we're going to be linked to you. We're going to be a part of your history and your story.

Same thing with Byron, Chase Elliott, all those guys. That's really a fun thing. I think that's why the motivation for why we love being in the Xfinity Series and why we feel like we serve a great purpose in the sport and the industry and we're an asset to it, but we also have these veterans like Justin. He's made his home with us, and he's given us so much and never said no, never rolled his eyes, never shrugged his shoulders, not once.

Man, we need a lot, right? We ask a lot from him and our drivers. Man, he does everything with a smile.

I just wanted this really badly for him. That certainly makes it different and unique.

The greatest thing I think about all of this is the relationships that you make with drivers, mechanics, crew chiefs, and man, what a relationship did I have, a friendship did I have with him.

I remember standing out on pit road three years ago both of us nearly crying because we came really close and didn't win, and we said, man, we're never going to do that again; we're going to find our way to the top one day.

And man, there was a lot of obstacles tonight, but it worked out.

Q. I feel like this weekend was kind of a microcosm of Justin's career. Obviously yesterday there's the bad luck right off the bat and then you find more adversity mid-race. We kind of touched on it earlier, but just that resilience, how have you seen him persevere?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, I think the missing ingredient to Justin might be Jim right here. When Justin said, hey, when we all got together and said maybe we need to try a different path or make a change if we're going to -- we've got a handful of years to really try to go after this and let's kind of see what's going on, Justin was not entirely sure about that choice, but Jim was his pick.

I didn't really know Jim. So I leaned on Justin to be sure about that decision. My gosh, he nailed it. Jim has made us better and made our entire company better. He makes his car fast. That drives everybody forward. He has a relationship with Justin that sort of polished or altered some of the rawness and some of the unpolished imperfections that Justin has in his game.

We were sitting there on the pit box tonight, and I'm thinking in my head, man, let's tell him this or let's tell him that. And Jim is on it. Jim is saying the things that I'm thinking in my head about what I wish I could key up the mic and do and say.

He just has a way. We talk about it all the time, how we should communicate and how we need to rally Justin and give him everything that he needs to really succeed.

He was just an incredible driver and a great ambassador for our program, but just kind of missing a couple things.

And I think he's the guy that makes it click. They've got a great relationship. I've got to give him a lot of credit. We rolled out a backup that was incredible, and so -- like I texted him, it's a great car, we're going to be fine. I'm like, damn, all right.

The way things are today with backups, you have no idea what kind of car you're rolling out. I know his team prepared. They prepared to race that car with the same effort as the primary. And, honestly, it might have been better than the primary, in all seriousness.

That's a credit to Jim and his team and JR Motorsports, Bummy, everybody involved. It was a big group effort trying to get us all back on the racetrack for the race. We had a car changing motors, we had the 9 car getting rebuilt and a backup car and the 7.

There was a lot going on for our whole company. We were spread really thin to try to get everybody back on the racetrack for tonight.

Q. It was interesting tonight, all three of the other championship contenders were very quick to congratulate Justin. They were very happy for him and for y'all to win. With all that Justin has gone through, being this close to winning a championship before and he was runner-up last year, for this weekend to be challenging like it was, does it almost seem like that was the way it needed to be, that this was such a -- had to overcome all these different things and this was the time he finally got it won?

JIM POHLMAN: Yeah, well, I don't know. We've been like that all year, really. If you look at the year, there's been adversity through a lot of races. We went into Bristol, and what did we give up, a 42 or 43-point lead?

You know, that was a moment where we were like, what in the world just happened? That team never quit. Justin never quit.

We came out of that, and it was kind of an eye opener. We went to the next couple races and had some more issues, but I look back at the season and I think the turning point was after that Kansas wreck, we walked in, and I got -- I have to say I have two of the best engineers in the Xfinity Series.

And Eric Long, my second engineer, he walked in and he said, I need Justin and I need you in your office right now.

And we sat down, and he laid a piece of paper on the table, and he said: This is how many points we need to earn. And if we do that, we transfer.

It was like the lightbulb went off in Justin's head. The lightbulb went off in everybody's head. We dug down deep and focused on that and focused on the points.

It's not pretty, right, when you're points racing. We've all watched Denny and thought, is he doing the right thing? We were in a similar situation, and the numbers don't lie. We stuck to our guns and we got here.

Once you're here, it's a whole different ballgame. To unload a backup car, yeah, up and downs of the season, that's just who we are. We fight through it.

Q. What makes Justin Allgaier so beloved where you have a Ryan Blaney and others walking onto the stage to congratulate him?

JIM POHLMAN: Maybe I'm biased because I've known him for 25-plus years and we're really good friends. I mean, most of you in the media have been around him and dealt with him and know him probably on a little more than just a professional level, right, and he always carries himself with a lot of integrity.

That translates to a lot of people. When you're very personable and you talk to people and you spend the time to say hello, how are your kids, how is it going, that goes a long way with people. And that's just who Justin is. That's why he becomes the most popular driver, and that's why he's the fan choice in the vote.

After the race, I was super proud because there's a lot of people that call him a friend. There's a lot of people that call him the most popular driver. And man, he's worked really hard to be called the champion, and for him to be able to come through with that is -- man, it closes the door on a lot of stuff for him. Puts him to the next level, gets it out of his mind. I mean, seven times, holy cow, right?

Just really happy that he's got it done and out of the way because we've got a couple more years here, and we can do more than just this one. Excited for all that.

Q. Kelley, Dale said he may not care tonight, but you guys did win the Owner's Championship. So what does that mean for the company?

KELLEY EARNHARDT MILLER: You know, it's just really fulfilling to have both the driver and owner because it's hard to do in our series where you have teams that run for the owner championship and trade out drivers.

To finally do that for our fourth championship is great. It does mean a lot to the company. It means a lot to my accounting department and Joe Mattis, who counts all the reasons why you want to win the Owner's Championship. It's a big deal to us and Xfinity Series.

So just super proud. It's really cool because now when you look at the banquet, you're sitting there for driver and owner, and you're not separated. And it's just a really awesome thing for our company.

Q. Jim, Justin said yesterday you gave him a hug and it was very uncharacteristic of you. He said you're not a hugger, and he knew at that moment that he just had to find --

JIM POHLMAN: Don't touch me.

Q. That was kind of -- like triggered him that he had to do something and just find another gear.

JIM POHLMAN: Yeah, I mean, knowing him for the amount of time that I've known him, to see the look on his face when he got out of that race car, it was disappointment for me because he knew how hard his team had worked on that car, how much effort we had put into it, and it was like you lost your first child when he got out of the car, like: I am sorry I wrecked your race car.

I had to go into damage control and really kind of rein him back in, like, hey, it's okay, we're here, we've got another car, and we'll get to work on it. We'll figure it out.

I think that's just who Justin is. We all have the relationship with him and you look at him and it's just how he processes things where he's, like, he wasn't worried that -- he wasn't worried about himself in that moment. He wasn't thinking about, oh, my gosh, my chances just went down the drain. He was looking at me like: I'm sorry I wrecked your race car. And I had to let him know that it's okay, we're going to fight through it.

Q. Kelley and Dale, fourth championship. What does this mean for your organization, the legacy you're building in the series?

KELLEY EARNHARDT MILLER: Well, I mean, that's what you come here to do. You come here to win races. You come here to win championships. I was just thinking trying to figure out -- it's been 2018 since we've won a championship, and that's a lot of long years because there's so much work that goes into doing this every day, each day, every day, in and out. It's not easy. It's not easy in our series to do it.

So just to keep people motivated and to come through COVID and to come through everything that you have to just keep everybody motivated at the company, it's just a really incredible thing. A lot of races that we've won, four championships underneath our belt and still a lot more to go.

So just continuing to build that legacy. Dale said it earlier, we do this to give other people opportunities, drivers, crew chiefs. We can sit here and the list is so long of so many amazing people that have come through JR Motorsports and done some really incredible things in the sport, whether they're a driver or crew chief or engineers or PR people or whatever it is. That's the opportunity that we like to give, and you want to do that winning and competitive.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I think we can count the wins and the championships when it's all done. But while you're in the moment or in the process of it, it's about the relationships and friendships, partnerships and the experience and the enjoyment and getting through the hard times and figuring out how to get faster and challenging each other.

It's a big business with all kinds of different departments that have to work together in the same direction, and that's a fun challenge trying to get it going and keep it going. We're champions tonight, but we start from zero again in February and have to try to have a good year.

We'll have some challenges and have to overcome them, and year after year, you just keep doing that.

That's the fun part is seeing people succeed, people realize their potential. People get called up -- I kind of like to look at it as like the baseball minor leagues. When somebody gets called up, that's a victory. That's like winning a race. Helping Justin achieve his dream of being a champion, you're trying to do those things year after year.