Dale Earnhardt Jr. won’t have a catchphrase as a NASCAR announcer

Expect plenty of honest opinion from Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the NASCAR on NBC booth, but don’t look for him to develop any specific trademark saying.

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes his debut with the NASCAR on NBC crew this weekend at Chicagoland, millions of fans will be hanging on his every word. That’s what happens when you come from a legendary racing family and were the most popular driver in your sport right up until you retired.

Those fans are counting on Junior to tell it like it is while remaining an overall ambassador for the sport, a balance he’s been able to strike pretty well, particularly in the latter stages of his racing career. One thing, you won’t hear from him, though, is any kind of catchphrase or pre-packaged line.

Earnhardt made no bones about his no catchphrase stance in an interview earlier this week with ESPN’s Bob Pockrass. What he did do was leave the door open ever so slightly for the fans to dub something he says repeatedly as his catchphrase.

"Q: Earlier you mentioned Squierisms. Are you going to have a catchphrase?Dale Jr.: No.Q: No catchphrase?Dale Jr.: Is it necessary to have one?Q: That’s my question.Dale Jr.: I’m not going to plan to have one, and I’m not going to create my own. I’m sure there will be things that I have a habit of saying a lot that I don’t even know I say a lot that the fans are going to tell me that I say a lot. So maybe the fans will come up with my catchphrase."

That’s a savvy concession from someone as popular on social media as Dale Jr. is. He currently has 2.5 million followers on Twitter, so you best believe that if he goes to the well too many times with any particular saying, JR Nation will remind him of it.

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When asked about the trademark “boogity, boogity, boogity” start to every race on Fox by Darrell Waltrip, Earnhardt was as diplomatic, saying that “It works for DW” and mentioning several times Waltrip changed it up with topical references that he thought were funny. Reading between the lines, though, it’s pretty clear that Dale Jr. would not like to be remembered for something like that himself.

The truth is that at least for this first race, it almost doesn’t matter what Earnhardt says, because fans will be so happy to see him back around the sport. The Overton’s 400, where he’ll make his allegedly catchphrase-free debut, is set for a 2:30 p.m. ET start on Sunday, July 1 on NBCSN.