Dale Earnhardt Jr. Partners with Hard Rock as Brand Ambassador

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has done a lot throughout his life. As a race car driver, he won 50 races combined in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he also won two championships. After two decades of success on the track, Earnhardt retired from full-time competition at the end of the 2017 season and was enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2021.

Aside from his career behind the wheel, Earnhardt has forged a successful career as a NASCAR Xfinity Series team owner, as a broadcaster, and as an entrepreneur. Additionally, Earnhardt has starred in more commercials and music videos than you can even imagine.

On Wednesday, Earnhardt added a new item to his already impressive resume as he has been announced as a brand ambassador for Hard Rock International.

“As a leader consistently delivering entertaining experiences across live music, gaming, and sports to guests, Hard Rock is honored to have Dale Earnhardt Jr. as part of our team,” said Keith Sheldon, President of Entertainment and Brand at Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming in a press release. “Together we will celebrate the spirit of car racing at our properties across the globe through exciting new menu items, apparel, and more.”

For Earnhardt, 50, this partnership is special because the Hard Rock brand really resonates with him on a personal level, and the company is keen on helping the North Carolina native achieve some of his own personal desires as well.

"It's a brand that is a fun brand. It's something that I personally enjoy and I was excited to put this partnership together," Earnhardt explained in an exclusive interview with Racing America On SI. "They're wanting to work with me on some of the projects that we have like our High Rock Vodka, so that's a great partner that I can get excited about. They know some of the things that I'm working on in my own personal life, and they want to help me with my own goals and ambitions, while we also check a lot of the boxes that they personally want to check within their their brand themselves.".

Earnhardt says it was Hard Rock, who started the conversation, which led to Wednesday's announcement, and after about a year of brainstorming, the two sides came up with this brand ambassadorship.

"Well, they reached out and wondered if we wanted to work together on a partnership," Earnhardt said. "They have been around forever, right? And they've kind of ebbed and flowed over the years. And they're in this sort of phase where there's a lot of great new energy around their brand and so we had been talking to them, God feels like a year we've been talking to them about doing something together."

The partnership was well worth the wait because Earnhardt and Hard Rock are a match made in heaven, honestly. And when you think about all of the facets that the legendary race car driver can connect with the iconic Hard Rock Cafe, it's staggering.

"Me and my wife Amy have High Rock Vodka, coincidentally, very similar in name. We were like, hey, you know, how can we work together? We can create some merch together, which would be a lot of fun. That's exclusive to their their merch store. We could do a vodka drink within their eateries and maybe do some other menu items. As I've made very clear in a lot of my content, I love Buffalo Buffalo chicken wings, so that was an easy way to sort of integrate things, working together and being a brand ambassador for them."

Let's break down all of the awesome tie-ins that Earnhardt will have through the new brand ambassador role with Hard Rock.