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Dale Earnhart Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya Learn to Drift in 5th Gens

In a recent post on Autohaulics [1], we found out that NASCAR stars Dale Earnhart Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya were recently at Charlotte Motor Speedway to learn about a whole new (to them) motorsport: drifting. To learn a new style of driving the NASCAR duo needed a new pair of cars, so a set of new 5th Gen Camaro SS’s stepped in with Juan Pablo Montoya in the red number 44 Energizer-branded car, and Dale Jr. in the number 88 Degree-branded 5th Gen Camaro. Apparently the drifto session was to double as filming for a forthcoming commercial of some kind. Based on the number of strategically placed target logos on the cars, our we’d bet our money that they are the masterminds behind the commercial.

One thing is for sure – both Earnhart and Montoya found drifting pretty challenging. We were able to find this video footage from the track day [2], and at one point Dale Jr. gets out of the Camaro and remarks to Montoya, “It’s hard! It took me forever just to figure out where to ‘bring’ the car. I had to understand just not to over rotate.” After his turn, Montoya gets out of the car and flails his arms around, acting as if he’s frantically wheeling a car around, and tells Earnhart, “That’s a freaking workout!”

It should be interesting to see how they tie together the whole “NASCAR-drivers-learning-to-drift” idea into a commercial, so keep an eye out for the commercial soon. Also, check out Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Facebook page [3] for more pics from the event.