Column: Earnhardt blossoms into multimedia personality

FILE - Dale Earnhardt Jr., team owner and TV analyst, answers questions during a news conference before the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., in this Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020, file photo. There’s a pointed episode in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s television show that encapsulates Earnhardt's remarkable transformation from a bashful third-generation racer into a multimedia personality. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)

FILE - Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks with the media in the garage area before practice for a NASCAR auto race in Darlington, S.C., in this Friday, Aug. 30, 2019, file photo. He’s a 46-year-old married father of two daughters, a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and the 15-time fan-voted most popular driver. No matter all his personal bliss, Earnhardt still has social anxieties and was a wreck when NBC Sports launched its NASCAR coverage at Nashville with a heavily-promoted pre-race show that featured him alongside country star Brad Paisley. “I was terrified,” Earnhardt told The Associated Press of the assignment. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)

FILE - In this May 5, 1999, file photo, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., of Kannapolis, N.C., left, listens to a crew member as he sits in his Winston Cup race car before a practice session at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. There’s a pointed episode in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s television show that encapsulates Earnhardt's remarkable transformation from a bashful third-generation racer into a multimedia personality. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)