BRISTOL, Conn. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. just wanted some sushi.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Earnhardt. It's President’s Day and we don’t have a full kitchen staff working today, which means we don’t have any sushi."
The bearer of bad news almost prepared for the backlash surely to come with telling NASCAR's most famous face -- to his face -- that he traveled all the way to single-digit Connecticut from balmy Daytona Beach, only to have his pre-arranged meal of choice be off the plate, literally.
"Oh, no worries at all," said Earnhardt. "Maybe something healthy? Like a salad or something? With chicken?"
It’s easy to look at his last name and point to that as the sole reason why Earnhardt is the NMPA Sprint Most Popular Driver 13 years running -- and that doesn't hurt his chances -- but it's that down-to-earth, regular-dude accessibility that fans find so appealing about the 41-year-old. That guy in the Wrangler commercials wearing a T-shirt and jeans, tossing a football around at a cookout? Yeah, that's actually him.
So it came as no surprise to see Junior acting like a kid in a candy store on Monday at ESPN HQ promoting the Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on the Road to Daytona campaign, making the television and radio rounds (colloquially known as the "car wash") and stopping to take pictures or chat with every ESPN personality or former athlete he brushed shoulders with in the frantic hallways of the sprawling campus.
He even FaceTimed fiancée Amy Reimann to show her how "cool" the No. 88 Nationwide Chevy blue-themed SportsCenter set was and to tell her how much fun he was having -- minutes before a sit-down conversation with anchor Lindsay Czarniak -- like we all would.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. FaceTiming with Amy Reimann on the set of "SportsCenter."
"It's always fun to come to ESPN to do the car wash. I didn't like it when I first heard about it, because it sounds like a lot of work, but I came up here for the first time (years ago) and it's like ... when they call it a 'campus,' I don't even know if that word does it justice,” said Earnhardt, who will kick off his 17th full-time Sprint Cup Series season on Sunday. "You get to walk around and actually be on all these shows that you see every day and you see the random people walking around the hallways; the ESPN stars just walking the halls and you want to take a picture with them and it’s a lot of fun.
"It actually ended up being a really good time that first car wash, so every time they talk about me doing the car wash, man it's something I reach out and grab."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. with former NBA player Jalen Rose.
"It's cold, weather's not great but we're inside and it's comfortable and it's been fun. They're always doing new things here and everybody's super nice so it's always a great experience."
Of course it was a great experience. After last month's Charlotte Media Tour and Tuesday's Daytona Media Day, it's fair to say Earnhardt is a little talked out -- at least when it comes to racing -- and just wants to hit the track.
But he's always game to chat about one of his other loves: the Washington Redskins.
And chat he did.
Between his 10:30 a.m. ET appearance on SportsCenter and his 3:40 p.m. ET taping for the 6 p.m. edition, Earnhardt squeezed in another seven appearances on ESPN programming -- along with filming a few SportsCenter originals, one in which he pretends to be a bus-driving security guard -- ranging from the debate formats of "First Take" and and "His & Hers" to the "Fantasy Football Focus Show" podcast with Matthew Berry and Field Yates.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. debated Washington Redskins with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith on "First Take." (Photo courtesy of ESPN)
He was asked about his favorite NFL franchise on nearly all of them, answering questions like "Wait, why aren't you a Carolina Panthers fan?," "What the heck happened with Robert Griffin III?," and "What should they do with quarterback Kirk Cousins -- slap the franchise tag him, sign him to a long-term deal or let him walk?"
And he knocked them all out of the park, clearly impressing all of the hosts with his knowledge and insight of another sport, while maintaining his focus and preparation to be among the top competitors in another of America's favorite pastimes.
(He thinks the 'Skins and Cousins both need to make concessions and meet in the middle for a long-term contract, by the way).
One of the coolest moments of the day came a few minutes before Junior went live with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill on the set of "His & Hers." Smith, a longtime ESPN mainstay (you've likely seen him on "Around the Horn'") told Earnhardt how he met him sometime around 2002 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, when Smith was a fresh-faced 22-year-old reporting for the Boston Globe, and how nice the then-Dale Earnhardt Incorporated driver was to him.
Junior remembered.
It was just a "sliver of a memory," but when you consider this was during the height of Junior Mania (let's be honest -- it’s still the height of Junior Mania) and the thousands upon thousands of people he's met and shared moments with since, a sliver is still impressive.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the set of "His & Hers" with hosts Michael Smith and Jemele Hill.
"'His & Hers' was good. I hate to play favorites. I was excited about 'His & Hers' because I had seen that show and I like the debate like 'First Take,' and I had done 'First Take' before, and it's good to see Stephen A. (Smith) and those guys, but man, they are so serious," Earnhardt said. "When the cameras are off, it's like 'OK, see ya. Good job.' But 'His & Hers' is a nice, clean debate. It's friendly and their personalities are really good. I like that. There's something about their debate where you can tell it's coming from the heart, instead of 'How can I sound one way or the other?' "
So, Earnhardt spent the whole day promoting the Daytona 500, getting people pumped for the "Great American Race."
But does it get his own juices flowing?
"It's kind of fun, because there's this ... you get fired up, I guess. More so about the season as a whole. The race is the race. We'll be there. It's coming Sunday whether I like it or not," Earnhardt said. "But when we come up to ESPN and we're doing this kind of stuff, this is the kind of stuff that typically lets you know that the season's getting started. It's finally here.
"The season's like Christmas. In a sense that when Christmas gets here, we all say, 'I can't believe Christmas is here! God, I can't believe it's here. It's already here.' And that's the way the season sneaks right up on you. The Daytona 500 is one thing, but that whole 36-race schedule is another monster. You're like, 'Well, we're doing this. It's here. It's starting. It's real. Playtime's over. All that fun we had in January is coming to an end.'"
Drivers, start your engines. It's almost Christmas.