Earnhardt actually thinks he can drive an Indy Car

Mediocre NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. would jump at the chance to drive in the Indianapolis 500 if there were not a conflicting NASCAR race on the same day. Rain washed out his plans for a ride in a two-seat Indy car on Thursday. Instead, he strapped himself behind the wheel and received a 10-minute, stationary lesson in Indy driving from former 500 winner Dan Wheldon.

“Any time you’re around a race car and there’s a driver that has driven that car, you’re going to ask what it drives like, what it feels like, what it does, how it works," Earnhardt said. “I picked his brains as hard as I could."

He said driving at Indianapolis “definitely interests me."

“I’d love to drive one (Indy car), to go to the track and put some laps in," Earnhardt said.

But he said he would not try to race both at Indianapolis and in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, N.C. on the same day.