Dale Junior's philosophy on life: 'You want to love what you do.'

   NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was asked Friday at Kansas Speedway whether he was finding himself getting more involved in all of the business opportunities outside racing that he and companies owned by him represent.

   Earnhardt, who has a propensity to take difficult issues and communicate them in a straight-forward, effective manner, did it again, offering a poignant insight to his approach at getting older and closer to the day his career isn't encompassed by driving a race car.

   Here was his response:

   “Yeah, I think so especially as I get older and get closer to understanding that driving race cars won’t last forever. I mean I knew that, but you get closer and closer to the day when you won’t be in the race car anymore. Not only do I need things to keep me busy or keep me excited and motivated to get out of bed every day. You want to love what you do right? Because I’ve had so much fun driving race cars it is going to be a real challenge to find something that I enjoy as much," he said.

   "That is sort of something I take a little more seriously now as I’m getting older. I think the dealerships in Tallahassee (Florida) will be a fun exciting challenge. That was really my career path if I hadn’t been a race car driver, was as a mechanic and into the service department and maybe eventually if it all worked out a general manager or something like that at a store. It’s funny to think about it now, but that was the reality of the situation when I was younger. I feel comfortable there and feel like I understand that business better than anything else."

   It has become evident the care and concern Earnhardt puts into his outside ventures of late matches that on ensuring he is competitive in the race car each week.

   "I’m taking those things very seriously because that is going to be my source of income one day when driving race cars is no longer an opportunity. Definitely take it more seriously and want to make sure that we are doing things right," he said.

   "The production company does really good there are just so many things that we have so much potential with that are looking really good. Hopefully all that stuff works out. Everybody is looking for the (George) Foreman grill and hopefully I’ve got a couple of them in the works.”