NASCAR Cup Series

No joke: Dale Earnhardt Jr. really does have a jewelry phobia

Published Feb. 13, 2015 8:30 a.m. ET

foxsports

Dale Earnhardt Jr. caught many folks by surprise during a visit to the "Dan Patrick Show" on Wednesday when he blamed his reluctance to propose to girlfriend Amy Reimann primarily on a "jewelry phobia."

Asked during Thursday's NASCAR Media Day at Daytona International Speedway if he had been merely kidding, Earnhardt Jr. made it very clear: He wasn't.

"I talked about it on Twitter before," Earnhardt Jr. said. "My sister (Kelley) used to chase me around the house with necklaces and stuff. I don't know. It's creepy to me. It is.

"I can be in the same room with it, and it doesn't bother me on other people, but if you watch Amy, she doesn't really ever wear any, so that's a dead giveaway."

So how does NASCAR's most popular driver plan to proceed on the jewelry front if he does decide to eventually ask for his girlfriend's hand in marriage?

"We've talked about it. I'm not going to be held accountable (for wearing a wedding ring), and she can do whatever she wants," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I figure if we ever get to that step in life, I owe her that much, so I'll have to put up with that. But I'm free of all my obligations in that regard."

"We've talked about just going to dinner or something on Friday or even tonight," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Friday's schedule's full with practice and all that stuff."

Apparently, it won't be the first time the couple hasn't exactly lived it up on Valentine's.

"I was on this TV show and they were asking me like, 'Hey, man, I know you've probably got some great things you do on Valentine's Day. Give us some great advice,'" Earnhardt Jr. said. "Last year, I think, we were in Daytona, or maybe it was two years ago, I'd forgotten everything about it, and we ended up me and her driving to the drug store and going in separately to buy candy -- the cheap drugstore candy -- and then bringing it back to the bus and eating it. That was as romantic as we got that particular (Valentine's). She doesn't really care much for Valentine's Day, at least she says. But I know better than to listen to her verbatim."

As for being asked by Dan Patrick about whether he had plans to get engaged, Earnhardt Jr. doesn't feel like he was put on the spot.

"No, not really, because we get it all the time," he said. "All the time, the people we interact with on Twitter are (saying), 'When are you gonna do it? Pop the question.' She gets it more than I do -- people telling her that I need to put a ring on it and do all those things. We hear it all the time.

"Plus, when I turned 40 (in October) it really ramped up. People were like, 'Man, time's running out, and Amy's a good girl. What are you waiting for?'"