“F*cking frustrates me”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. fires back at Ken Schrader’s take on whether driver’s number matter

In the latest episode of the Herm and Schrader podcast, Ken Schrader told Kenny Wallace that numbers on NASCAR cars do not matter anymore. Wallace, who drove the No. 36 car back in the day, disagreed. He had a long-standing emotional tie to the number.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he was with Wallace on this. Throughout his career, the NASCAR Hall of Famer has driven several cars, and all those numbers hold immense importance to the two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion.

Differing with Schrader, he said (via Dale Jr. Download),

“He's (Ken Schrader) family, but I don't agree with that. You know, don't like that he swayed Kenny. Kenny ought to have a personal connection to the #36, I got connections to 8, 88, 03, 31, and I'm gonna f***g keep them. I feel like the number does matter because it's an identifier." "It's an identifier and it needs to be in the middle of the f*****g door, or whatever you wanna put it," Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued. "This f*****g frustrates me because the number is important. What are we doing?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. captured the bigger share of his success in the NASCAR Cup Series as the driver of the iconic No. 8 Budweiser Chevy. He took the car to victory lane 17 times, including the 2004 Daytona 500. In total, Dale Jr. owns 26 wins in the Cup Series, which ties him with Fred Lorenzen for 32nd on the all-time wins list.

Dale Jr. retired from full-time racing at the end of the 2017 season. His final race was on November 19, 2017, at Homestead-Miami Speedway. However, he continued to compete in select NASCAR Xfinity races and CARS Late Model Stock Tour races even after his formal retirement from NASCAR.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. pinpoints “betrayal” following JR Motorsports’ 2025 heartbreak

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t happy with how the current elimination-style playoff format navigated the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. His comments surfaced days after Connor Zilisch, driver of the No. 88 for JR Motorsports, missed out on winning the 2025 title despite owning a series-high winning tally.

On last Tuesday’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt Jr. explained why he thought the playoff system wasn’t fair.

“The format betrayed us really badly. I’m trying to understand where my frustration or my angst is, what is to be directed at,” Earnhardt Jr. said. "We’ve had this format for a while. It’s done this before, but I’ve never walked out of there going, ‘(expletive), dude, that was way (expletive) egregious.’ What is it about this particular year?

Zilisch finished the championship race at Phoenix Raceway in P3, behind the eventual championship winner Jesse Love and runner-up Aric Almirola. The young racing phenom will move to a full-time Cup Series ride with Trackhouse Racing in 2026.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua