Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t trying to be political when a NASCAR fan in Indonesia tweeted at him on Saturday night asking his opinion on President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration travel ban.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. supports NASCAR fan with tweet against Donald Trump’s travel ban
Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks out against President Donald Trump’s immigration ban in a social media post supporting a Muslim NASCAR fan.
Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images
What Earnhardt, NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver, was merely trying to do was show some consideration toward someone who he thought wasn’t feeling accepted due to the executive order prohibiting citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States
“He was very upset, distraught and sad,” Earnhardt told reporters Tuesday during a test at Phoenix International Raceway. “I felt like I wanted to show him some compassion and I looked at his profile and saw he was a NASCAR fan and I just felt like reaching out. I wasn’t trying to inject into a political conversation, I wasn’t trying to attempt to get a bunch of attention there.”
Earnhardt’s post was retweeted more than 3,000 times and garnered national media. The tweet was directed toward Twitter user @GelarBudidarma, who in his profile identifies himself as a “very proud” Muslim.
Earnhardt’s tweet was prompted in part by having recently taken a strong interest in his family’s genealogy. That interest included a 2015 vacation to Germany with his girlfriend, Amy Reimann, and his sister and brother-in-law to further research the family’s roots. During that trip Earnhardt proposed to Reimann inside a Lutheran church his ancestors had once worshiped in.
“It just really is very, very interesting what’s going on in the world considering all the research I did on my own family tree,” Earnhardt said. “It’s just incredible and I read a lot of news. Try to stay on top every day of current events, and not that I’m an expert or understand everything that’s happening in the world or has been going on. I don’t know how I ran across that tweet but it felt that guy needed somebody -- he needed some compassion. Not that I understand what it feels like to be in that position but I certainly felt bad for the guy.”
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