Dale Earnhardt Jr. likens Cracker Barrel logo change backlash to NASCAR's rebranding debates 

On the latest episode of the Bless Your Hardt podcast, former NASCAR star driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat down with his wife, Amy Earnhardt, and shared their take on Cracker Barrel changing the logo. On Tuesday, August 19, 2025, the brand debuted the new logo, and since then, have been faced significant backlash.

The restaurant chain opened its first store in 1969 and had a text-only logo for the first eight years. Later in 1977, the company added the man sitting against a barrel, and it became the brand's identity. However, this year, they removed the man along with the phrase "Old Country Store," leaving Cracker Barrel on a yellow background reminiscent of the original logo.

Fans were not impressed by the change, and the company shed $100 million in market value after Thursday. Reflecting on the same, a fan questioned Dale Earnhardt Jr. about his views on the whole scenario. Dale Jr. compared Cracker Barrel's case to the Talladega Superspeedway changing their logo. He further explained, citing the example of his co-owned team, JR Motorsports.

"I know when you change like a track logo, Talladega changed their track logo, which I think it's pretty good now, but people will just get so mad. Yeah. When when you do stuff like that or teams will change track logo logo. I would call out um we got we got a really hell of a creative team here, but they wanted to change the Junior Motorsports logo, the flaming wheel that Junior Motorsports has always had. They were like, "Man, we need to go modern." I'm like, "Man, there's equity in the in the identifier, right?" stated Dale Earnhardt Jr. [41:30 onwards]

"And like when you see, you know, Jumpman or or you know, when you see certain logos, you you know immediately what that is, right? And you build all that equity up and what I said, so you can't change the flaming wheel. You can try to spice it up. And they did some things to like clean it up a little bit, get it a little better looking, but I was like, "No, we can't change our logo. What? Flaming wheel's badass. Nobody else has a flaming wheel. You're going to look like everybody else," he concluded.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s co-owned team, JR Motorsports, fields four entries in the Xfinity Series with the defending champion Justin Allgaier in the #7 Chevy. Followed by Carson Kvapil in #1, Sammy Smith in #8, and Connor Zilisch in the #88 Chevy. The team also features one part-time entry in the Xfinity series and one part-time car in the Cup Series.

---

“Every fan of NASCAR is going to feel like a winner”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. got candid about the 2026 Cup Series schedule

On Wednesday, August 20, 2025, NASCAR unveiled the schedule for the 2026 Cup Series season, introducing some changes. Following that, JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his take on the changes made in the lineup via an X post.

The 2026 Cup Series season will kick off with The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. This will be followed by the inaugural points-paying race, the Daytona 500, at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2026. Also, the governing body changed the destination of the All-Star Race from North Wilkesboro Speedway to Dover Motor Speedway.

This shifted the North Wilkesboro Speedway race to a points-paying race for the next season. Reflecting on the major change, Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed his excitement (via X):

"The big news for me on the 2026 @NASCAR schedule is @NWBSpeedway getting a points race! I can't wait to call 400 laps of night racing there on July 19. It's massive for the surrounding community, and every fan of NASCAR is going to feel like a winner next July."

The North Wilkesboro Speedway race is set to kick off on Sunday, July 19, 2026. Additionally, the sanctioning body added two off weeks for the 2026 season. The first off week is set after the Martinsville Speedway on March 29, while the second week is scheduled after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2026.