"I regret that I didn't": Dale Earnhardt Jr. addresses prospect of his NASCAR Cup ownership

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently addressed the idea of him entering the NASCAR Cup Series as an owner. The former Hendrick Motorsports driver has been an owner of a successful team, JR Motorsports, for many years. However, he hasn't taken the step up to the Cup yet.

Speaking on the Happy Hour podcast, Kevin Harvick told Earnhardt that him potentially becoming a Cup owner with JRM would elevate the entire grid. Dale Jr. agreed to that and added that he has voiced this opinion to the key people that matter. But he then opened up on the hurdle behind him becoming a Cup owner.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that he has been around long enough to remember the time where one could just gather a car, the licenses, the entry fee, the parts and enter a Cup race. He said that it was then, an 'understandable challenge.'

"But today to get just out there and compete, you need that $50 million charter and that charter is going to be $100 million and $150 million and 200. It's going to go to the moon over the next several years. It was a good time to buy it 10 years ago. I regret that I didn't, but it's become this place where only people with that kind of money can play," he explained. [23:00]

Earnhardt mentioned that the NASCAR that he knew where one could just field a car and go race is now extinct. This is what he finds hard to believe because it is no longer realistic for anyone to do on a weekly basis.

But while that is something he finds tough to accept, he understands that the same thing is 'incredibly great' for the people involved in the sport.

"Great for NASCAR, great for the France family, great for the owners and teams that have those charters that are appreciating year after year after hour after hour. They're just going up," he claimed.

Having said that, Dale Earnhardt Jr. added that someone who's 'trying to get in', doing so without a big entity with 'real cash' is tough.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes big admission about his Cup ownership prospects

Voicing his thoughts on the subject of Dale Jr. becoming a Cup owner potentially, Kevin Harvick said that he and his team can bring 'a lot to the table.' Harvick touched on the effort that Junior and his sister, Kelley Earnhardt, put into the sport.

"The impact that it would have on Cup racing would be through the roof, but there are a lot of other pieces that that fall into that puzzle," Harvick claimed. [24:20]

This led Dale Earnhardt Jr. to confess that many years ago, he had 'a real good opportunity' to enter the Cup Series as an owner. But now that he is where he is, he claimed that whenever he goes to a CARS Tour race and work there, he is 'just as happy and rewarded.'

Earnhardt added that perhaps now, the idea of him being a Cup owner is 'in the rearview mirror.'