Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed how NASCAR stepped in to arrange a meeting with Tom Cruise at Daytona. Earnhardt shared that he wasn’t initially scheduled to stay over for the Cup Series race on Saturday.
Cruise and Anne Hathaway recently promoted the Days of Thunder sequel at Daytona. The highly anticipated film marks a reunion between Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who spearheaded the F1 movie as well.
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On the latest episode ofDale Jr. Download, Earnhardt outlined his meeting with Cruise and how it came to be.
“We went to the O’Reilly race. Well, NASCAR was like, ‘Hey, man, Tom wants to meet you. You got to spend the night and get up in the morning, and Tom wants to meet you.’ So we went probably 9.30, 9.45 in the morning on race day for the Cup guys. We go out to the NASCAR hangar,” said Earnhardt via On3.
“Tom flies his own plane. Tom lands his plane at Daytona,” he added, “He taxis right up to the hangar. We walked out to the plane. He gets off, and we sit there and talk for probably 20 minutes. I got to meet his family and folks that were with him.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. further revealed that Tom Cruise spoke at the drivers’ meeting ahead of Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400. The original film had modified production-ready cars running in actual NASCAR races for limited laps.
Professional drivers like Greg Sacks and Bobby Hamilton drove the camera-equipped stock cars during these runs. The same can be expected this time around for the return of Cruise’s character, Cole Trickle.
Notably, Cruise originally conceived the story for the 1990 film before handing over the reins to writer Robert Towne. The late Tony Scott directed the racing epic, which went on to gross over $150 million at the worldwide box office.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens up on working with Days of Thunder sequel writer
Nov 1, 2025; Avondale, Arizona, USA; NASCAR Xfinity Series team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr during the Xfinity Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
In the same episode, Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed that he has been working with Will Staples, the lead writer of Days of Thunder 2. The two first met at last year’s season finale in Phoenix, before reconnecting at Earnhardt’s North Carolina home.
Earnhardt shared that they went through all the ins and outs of what’s possible.
“I’m excited about it. I am thrilled that they’re wanting to do this. And so I can’t wait to see, you know, in talking with Will, I keep telling him, there’ll be some things that they can’t lean into with the old movie, but there’ll be some things that they can,” Earnhardt said via aforementioned source.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared that he’d asked Staples to place easter eggs that connect with the original 1990 film.
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