NASCAR Executive, Kelley Earnhardt-Miller on the 9 Lessons that Changed Her Life

Published on May 12, 2020

Kelley Earnhardt-Miller came from a Racing dynasty; her grandfather was Ralph Earnhardt, her father was Dale Earnhardt and her brother was Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kelley and her brother Dale jr grew up children of a single mother. After a fire, they were forced to move in with their father at the beginning of his budding racing career.

Success meant that Dale Earnhardt spent most of his time on the road. For Kelley, it meant she had to create her own way, famous name or not.

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Creating Her Own Way

A star racer in her own her right, Kelley started working on a degree in criminal justice, but quickly pivoted to business. She dove into the business of racing, excelling in her role at Action Performance, the top NASCAR merchandising company.

She knew the two most important groups to serve: the fans and the sponsors. Kelley quickly gained a reputation for putting the needs of both groups before her own and helping them to grow.

In February of 2001, Kelley lost her father, NASCAR lost a 7-time champion, Dale Earnhardt. The loss was hard on Kelley but ultimately helped to make the sport of racing safer. The sport had never lost someone with Dale Earnhardt’s standing and was forced to confront driver safety.

The Most Difficult Decision

Despite the loss, Kelley knew she needed to be her brother’s advocate and protect his brand, JR Motorsports. She had recently moved into JR Motorsports, under the Dale Earnhardt Incorporated umbrella.

Kelley had to drive hard to push the JR Motorsports brand, but it often seemed that DEI did not make Dale’s brand a priority.

In 2007, Kelley and Dale made the tough decision that JR Motorsports would leave DEI, the team her father founded. Kelley had built a relationship with car owner, Rick Hendrick, and moving to Hendrick Motorsports made sense.

“You run a business by committee, but it’s really not. I just want to ask the questions. I don’t work on the floor with ‘X’ amount of people every day or understand, you know, so I think it’s important that you understand what they’re going through. You see it through their lens, you ask the questions, you know if this would have happened how would this affect you?

If we decide to make this decision, what am I not thinking about because I’m only looking at it through my lens, and my lens doesn’t touch everything doing it like that. We learned a lot for one because you learn looking at it from a different perspective and thinking of things that you may not have thought of and that’s what I love about it is that I’m not the smartest person on the block and collaborating and trying to understand it from soup to nuts and you can make a better decision at the end of the day as well.”
-Kelley Earnhardt-Miller

However, she knew the value of a brand, and to protect JR Motorsports she had some special requests for the contract. Yes, JR Motorsports would move under Hendrick Motorsports, but would still retain PR and marketing rights; a definite departure from the rest of the racing world.

In 2009, ESPN named her the third most powerful woman in NASCAR – She created her own way.

Building Her Own NASCAR Family

Kelley Earnhardt Miller is part owner and general manager of JR Motorsports and is considered one of the most prominent businesswomen in NASCAR today. She oversees the company’s race team, management team, and business ventures for her brother, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The daughter of seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt, Earnhardt Miller graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a BA in business administration.

A multiple-award recipient, she was named in 2015 as one of Sports Business Journal’s Game Changers/Women in Sports Business for her impact on the motorsports industry. Kelley is married to L.W. Miller and is mom to Karsyn, Kennedy, and Wyatt.

Kelley Earnhardt-Miller sits down with me, Jeremy Ryan Slate, to discuss the launch of her book, Drive: 9 Lessons to Win in Business and Life, on the latest episode of the Create Your Life Show.

Jeremy Ryan Slate a Contributing Editor at Grit Daily. Based in New Jersey, he is the founder of the Create Your Own Life Show, a podcast that studies world-class performers. He studied literature at Oxford University, and is a former champion power lifter turned new-media entrepreneur. Specializes in using podcasting and new media to create celebrity and was ranked #1 in iTunes New and Noteworthy and #26 in the business category. Jeremy was named one of the top 26 podcast for entrepreneurs to listen to in 2017 by CIO Magazine and Millennial Influencer to follow in 2018 by Buzzfeed.  The Create Your Own Life Podcast has been downloaded over one million times.

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