Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Hasn’t Talked To Stepmom Teresa In A Very Long Time, But Still Has Hope For “Reconciliation”

Maybe there is hope after all… though I wouldn’t hold my breathe, to be honest, though.

Of course, if you know anything about the Earnhardt’s or NASCAR, you’ve probably heard a lot about how much fans strongly dislike Teresa Earnhardt (that’s putting it nicely), and her relationship with Dale Earnhardt’s kids Kerry, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley is strained, at the absolute best. When Earnhardt tragically and suddenly lost his life in the final turn of the Daytona 500, Teresa suddenly inherited another role: NASCAR team owner.

Dale Earnhardt had started his race team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., in the 1980s to field cars for himself in the then-Busch Series. The team eventually grew into the Cup Series, and in 2000 he began fielding a car for his son, the now-iconic Budweiser #8 Chevy. Longtime NASCAR fans know how the story ends: The sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ended up leaving the team his father built after a bitter (and public) battle with his stepmother over ownership in the company, and the team folded just a few years later, though she initially thought she could just make “another Dale Jr.” More on that HERE.

There has seemingly been little love lost between them as a result of this ongoing feud, and since Dale Jr. was a little boy, he recalls butting heads with Teresa. She has been very much disliked by NASCAR fans since Dale Sr. died because of all of the aforementioned reasons and more, and maybe some of it’s unfair, we’ve really never heard much from her side… I’m not Teresa Earnhardt apologist by any stretch of the imagination, but still, we really don’t know much from her perspective and I do think she really loved her husband.

His kids, well, that’s a whole different conversation…

The whole DEI closer is one of those major “what if” scenarios, because many believe Dale Jr. would’ve won a championship had he been able to keep the company and continue down that path, and I tend to agree, but who knows… it’s nice to think that would’ve been the case, anyways.

The whole DEI saga is a topic that Jr. has discussed on his Dale Jr. Download podcast before, and following the death of Sr., Teresa and Jr. were in a heated, public battle over ownership of DEI, which racing fans know a lot about. Because details on how it should be run, or who should run it, were not in a will, it all went to Teresa, and eventually, that led to the demise of her husband’s beloved racing team, which he had intended to eventually be run by his children.

Dale Jr. and his sister Kelley now co-own the very successful Jr. Motorsports, so it’s worked out, but I think many of us hope that somehow, some way, Jr. and his siblings can eventually at least take ownership of what is left of DEI. I don’t know how realistic that is, but many suspect that Teresa and Dale’s only child together, Taylor, is set to inherit it all, and the hope is that she can bring her other siblings back into the fold with it all, so to speak.

The DEI complex in Mooresville, North Carolina was officially closed to the public after the COVID-19 pandemic, but this past September, a couple fans got an incredible private tour of the facility. I think I remember reading something about how they had traveled from a far away state like Oregon or somewhere, and randomly decided to email someone at the foundation, and they wound up on an incredible tour.

And a few weeks ago, a reddit post with photos the lucky two who went on the tour shared went viral, showing a rare look into the state of the current day Dale Earnhardt Incorporated building, which looked stuck in time, to say the least. I looked through all the photos when they were shared and many of the offices and visitor areas alike looked untouched from the day they locked the doors.

Unfortunately, the post was taken down, but here’s a look at one of the show rooms someone on X managed to screenshot some:

Someone on r/NASCAR got a private tour of DEI. Damn. pic.twitter.com/2jK4815TQI

— Nathan (@KensethFan17_20) September 18, 2025

In some of the photos, you could see Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s beloved No. 8 DEI car, though like I said, the post has since been taken down, though Dale Jr. did get to see them and opened up about it on a recent episode of his Dale Jr. Download podcast.

He explained that it was a relief to see everything inside had been well taken care of, and he was especially excited to see that his own cars were in there right up front. Given the tensions within the family, Jr. admitted that he hasn’t talked to anyone on that side, or Teresa in particular, “in so long,” so he really has no idea what is going on with any of that stuff anymore, sadly.

But he says those photos and seeing his cars gave him hope that “there’s a chance of reconciliation somewhere down the road.” Words I NEVER thought I would hear one of the Earnhardt children utter (not including Teresa’s only biological child, Taylor, obviously), though you know what they say, time heals all…

“I was just glad to know that stuff’s still well taken care of. It made me feel good that some of my cars are still there, like in the front. When you go, and you’re looking back, they still celebrate all of the history. I didn’t know. I haven’t talked to anybody on that side in so long.

I haven’t talked to Teresa in so long that I don’t know where they are emotionally about the relationship, or the lack of a relationship, and so I was happy to see that some of my cars were still there. It gives me some hope that there’s a chance of reconciliation somewhere down the road.”

I thought we’d only ever see something like that if pigs flew, but you know what, I think it’s incredibly mature to hear him even thinking that way considering all of the hurt and things that have gone on between him and Teresa since his father tragically passed away.

Considering Kerry Earnhardt was recently extremely outspoken about Teresa potentially selling his father’s land for a data center, and the fact that the Earnhardt kids are still banned from his property and not even allowed to visit his grave, that seems like it’s still a very far off possibility, but you truly never know. For the sake of the family and Dale’s legacy, I hope they can one day make peace. I would be stunned, but it really would be incredible if they could all ever get to that point.

And if you’re wanting to get a tour of the mysterious DEI building, that’s unlikely, as the reddit user who took the tour said he was asked by the foundation to take the photos down because of the overwhelming response by people obviously wanting to get inside those doors too.

Who knows, maybe DEI will one day be open to the public again, it’s an incredibly interesting and important piece of MN history, but at the very least, it’s comforting to know that all of the Earnhardt memorabilia inside those walls have been well taken care of, even if no one’s able to enjoy seeing any of it for the foreseeable future.

And if Dale Jr. and Teresa ever make up, I’m played the lottery and putting out an ad for a flying pig…

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The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Hasn’t Talked To Stepmom Teresa In A Very Long Time, But Still Has Hope For “Reconciliation” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.