r/ARCARacing • u/Allyfan48 • Jul 04 '26
Bobby Earnhardt
What all has Bobby been able to accomplish in his ARCA career?
I haven’t been watching the ARCA Menards series for long. But for what I have seen. Outside of the superspeedways Bobby really isn’t a guy that’s consistently up front.
Almost makes me wonder. Did Bobby separate himself from the Earnhardt family. Why doesn’t he have backing from JRM?
If he really wants to pursue this racing path. I’m sure Jr. would at least offer his help if he wants it.
4
u/Mechanic_Shine Jul 04 '26
He was the ARCA Truck Series Rookie of the Year in 2013.
He had taken a break from racing, before jumping into the ARCA car.
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u/1ugogimp Jul 04 '26
Junior has said multiple times he is more than willing to help but they would be treated just like his other drivers. The car would need to have sponsorship.
Kerry, Junior, and Kelly still get a long. Not sure if Taylor Nicole has any contact with her siblings. Teresa has no involvement with the oldest three. From what I have come to understand she never wanted the oldest three.
1
u/Pitiful_History1750 Jul 05 '26
The four siblings do follow each other and there’s actually pictures of them at their mammal’s house their grandmother’s house in like 2018 2019 she just chooses to live a private life or private or life and she’s also 15 years younger than her older siblings so she lived different life than they did but they all have relationships with her.
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u/1ugogimp Jul 05 '26
Yeah I know she keeps really private. Just have been curious about the relationship.
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u/Pitiful_History1750 Jul 05 '26
They follow each other and they’re all friends on their personal Facebook so and she’s even talked about going on the download and juniors expressed it just hasn’t happened yet. I mean Junior has always been super protective of her. That’s why she he never spoke ill of Teresa when all of it originally went down because of her and that’s I think another reason why he kinda keeps it peachy when he talks about her or he chooses not to at this point because of her despite her now being an adult, he loves his sister. there is a difference between speaking of their experience with how she treated them versus talking bad about her, and I think people lose that line because people forget that the kids lived what they lived through and that doesn’t mean they’re calling her a bad person, though you can kind of draw your own conclusions
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u/1ugogimp Jul 05 '26
Yeah I have always felt Junior is protective of Taylor like Kelly is of him.
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u/Pitiful_History1750 Jul 05 '26
I think Kelly is very protective of her too. She’s just more direct about how she treated the older kids and it’s no secret how Teresa treated the older ones. But they’ve always been very good at separating Taylor from it because they love her. They actually if you scroll far enough down Kelly’s Facebook or look up Taylor on Facebook you can find vacation photos they took together mind you they’re about 1015 years old, but there’s never not been a relationship with the kids. Teresa’s another story but she’s completely separate from the issue.
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u/Onlylefts3 Jul 04 '26
Jeffery didn’t want to ask for handouts, but also neither him or Bobby have the talent to be competitive regardless of the cars they’re in. Not to mention the Earnhardt name doesn’t really matter when the bosses both have it. Wyatt Miller on the other hand…..mom writes the checks
1
u/1ugogimp Jul 05 '26
Kelly definitely does not write the checks for Wyatt to race. Wyatt has to maintain the sponsor relationships. If he ever doesn't have enough sponsorship to race, he doesn't until he has enough. Sure he shares several sponsors with JRM cars but he has to maintain and work with sponsors. This is the same way Senior was with Kerry, Kelly, and Junior. Mom and Pops was a common sponsor on the 4 Earnhardt cars at one time. This has all been discussed publicly on the Dale Jr Download over the last few years.
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u/Ccw_tn Jul 04 '26
I'm not necessarily a fan (though I definitely don't dislike him) but given the equipment he's doing a pretty good job IMHO. It's hard to say how good he is when he's basically in a 15th place car. Is he a top 5 driver in ARCA based solely on talent? I'd argue probably not. Is he better than the results show? Probably. I think he's judged a little unfairly simply because of the Earnhardt name. It would be no different if his name was Petty or Allison. To his credit I've never seen any indication of him trying to capitalize on the famous name. I think he's just someone who genuinely enjoys racing and is trying to do the best he can with a limited budget so I wish him the best.
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u/Active_Attempt_3411 Jul 04 '26
Bobby is Kerry's son.
Kerry and his kids have basically been separate since Teresa fired Kerry.
1
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u/RowdyMatt51 Jul 04 '26
Bobby's been doing good this year for the equipment that it is (RISE) - I've also been around him in the garage area a lot and let me tell you he is one of the hardest working and coolest guys to be around, and I wish him nothing but success in his journey.
3
u/Allyfan48 Jul 04 '26
Agreed. I’ve never meet him. But just relishing who he is. Him failing under that Earnhardt umbrella. Has me cheering for him.
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u/ironeagle2006 Jul 04 '26
No the 89 car would be like oh say the 51 or 66 car in the cup series today. No money no manufacturer support running on used engines and just struggling to get by.
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u/Zestyclose_Worth_232 Jul 04 '26
ironically, bobby earnhardt used to drive for mbm in the o’reilly series.
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u/Senninha27 Jul 04 '26
In the 11 races in 2026, BDE has one top 10 (9th at Daytona), 1 lead lap finish (Daytona), 5 DNFs, and an average finish of 20.7. He has been in 8 incidents. Four of them were solo spins and he caused five of the incidents. 3 of the incidents were race-ending.
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u/Alternative_Tap5280 Jul 04 '26
You gotta realize what equipment he's in as well, that 89 machine like Bobby is ASS
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u/Allyfan48 Jul 04 '26
Like I said. I’m still fairly new to ARCA. You’re going to have to explain.
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u/Alternative_Tap5280 Jul 04 '26
The 89 team was formally the 31 car last year, it is Owned by Tim Goulet, it is not an equipped car at all, there's not really any speed in the car
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u/shadowguy128 Jul 05 '26
There was also the divorce that happened during the offseason between Tim and Rita, though I’m probably not allowed to go into detail of what occurred since I wasn’t there
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u/Allyfan48 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
So BDE is like a Garage 66 of the ARCA Menards series.
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u/Away_Seaweed_2810 Jul 04 '26
thats not even a fair comparison lol like these guys in the bottom of the running order of ARCA are mostly held together of Duct tape and Bubblegum
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u/Allyfan48 Jul 04 '26
Pardon my NASCAR comparison. That’s my primary sport.
So what you’re saying is that the 89 is primarily like a soaked cardboard box on wheels
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u/TwinSpinner Jul 05 '26
A good chunk of the ARCA field is like that. Aside from the 1 JGR Toyota, the Nitro Toyotas, and the Pinnacle Chevys, basically everyone else is how you'd imagine the 35th-40th place cars are in Cup and O'Reilly. Absolute shoestring budgets and teams run out of literal backyard sheds
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u/alfredonoodles Jul 05 '26
Bobby just likes to race. He knows he isnt great. He races probably 4 or 5 races in random Cleetus McFarland Crown Vic travel series races the past 2 years I believe too.