Kelley King Earnhardt Miller (née Earnhardt; formerly Earnhardt-Elledge; born August 28, 1972) is an American businesswoman. She is the chief executive officer of

JR Motorsports JR Motorsports (pronounced "Junior Motorsports") is an American professional stock car racing team based in Mooresville, North Carolina, co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelley Earnhardt Miller, L. W. Miller, L.W. Miller, and Rick Hendrick. It c ...

which she co-owns with her brother,

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and broadcaster. A third-generation driver, he is the son of the late 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and relative ...

and she is the daughter of

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional Stock car racing, stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Serie ...

. The team's driver

Chase Elliott William Clyde "Chase" Elliott II (born November 28, 1995) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation)#ZL1, Chevrolet ZL1 for Hendrick Mo ...

won the

2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series file:22 Alex Tagliani pan NASCAR Nationwide 2014 Gardner Denver 200 at Road America.jpg, The No. 22 car for NASCAR operations of Team Penske, Team Penske won the owner's championship with 1347 points and five different drivers. file:9 Chase ...

title. In 2018,

Tyler Reddick Tyler George Reddick (born January 11, 1996) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry (XV80), Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing. He is a two-time champion i ...

, another driver for JR Motorsports, won the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship. In 2024,

Justin Allgaier Justin Myrl Allgaier (born June 6, 1986) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation), Chevrolet SS for JR Motorsports and part-time ...

, won the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship.

Racing career

Driving career

She learned how to drive from her father and she would drive a car around the family farm since she was about 12 or 13 years old. Earnhardt Miller raced stock cars at local tracks. Her father

reportedly said that she might be the next great driver from the Earnhardt family because of what

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

described as her "aggression, mental toughness, a willingness to push the car to its limit". Her cousin Tony Eury Jr. said, "She was very good at what she did. I raced her several times over at Tri-County acetrack in Brasstown, N.C. We thought she probably had as much or more talent than any of them." She raced more frequently at

Hickory Motor Speedway Hickory Motor Speedway is a short track located in Hickory, North Carolina. It is one of stock car racing's most storied venues, and is often referred to as the "World's Most Famous Short Track" and the "Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars". The t ...

and

Myrtle Beach Speedway Myrtle Beach Speedway (originally named Rambi Raceway) was a Short track motor racing, short track located on U.S. Route 501 near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The track was built in 1958. The speedway was a semi-banked Asphalt concrete, asphalt ...

. Her father hired Dale Jr. to work on her race cars, including building one from scratch, while the two were local race car drivers. She raced after graduating from

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte, or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs thr ...

and ended her racing career in 1996 until leaving on Friday's at 2 o'clock conflicted with working full-time at Action Performance.

Team owner career

Earnhardt Miller co-owns

with her brother

, her cousin Tony Eury Jr., and

Rick Hendrick Joseph Riddick "Rick" Hendrick III (born July 12, 1949) is an American businessman. He is best known as the owner of the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports. He is also a co-owner of JR Motorsports and founder of the Hendrick Automotive Group, the l ...

. She is credited with bringing

Danica Patrick Danica Sue Patrick (; born March 25, 1982) is an American former professional racing driver and model. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win ...

to the team's

Nationwide Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

car.

Other business interests

On July 29, 2019, agricultural company Brandt appointed Earnhardt Miller into the board of directors. Brandt is currently one of JR Motorsports' partners, sponsoring the No. 7 team.

Personal life

Kelley Earnhardt Miller was born to Dale Earnhardt and his second wife Brenda Lorraine Jackson (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Gee). She has a younger brother, Dale Jr.; an elder half-brother, Kerry, from her father's first marriage; and a younger half-sister, Taylor Earnhardt-Putnam, from her father's third marriage. Kelley's parents divorced shortly after Dale Jr. was born, and they lived with Brenda until their house was destroyed in a fire when she was eight years old in 1980. As Brenda had no financial support after the fire, she gave up custody of the two children to Earnhardt Sr. prior to his marriage to Teresa Houston. During her childhood, Kelley took care of Dale Jr. while their father and Teresa were busy with the race seasons. Three weeks after 12-year-old Dale Jr. was sent by his father and Teresa to a military school for delinquency, Kelley left high school to join him in 1986. Kelley attended

University of North Carolina Wilmington The University of North Carolina Wilmington, or University of North Carolina at Wilmington, (UNC Wilmington or UNCW) is a Public university, public research university in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Caroli ...

until transferring to

to be closer to home.

As soon as Dale Jr. started earning money in his racing career, Kelley offered to handle his finances. She married Raymond Walter Holm Jr. on June 29, 2001, in

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Mecklenburg County () is a County (United States), county located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 1,115,482, making it th ...

. They were divorced by 2004 in

Iredell County, North Carolina Iredell County ( )Talk Like a Tarheel
, from the North Carolina Co ...

. She was formerly married to Jimmy Elledge, by whom she has two daughters. After divorcing Elledge, she married former NASCAR driver

L. W. Miller III Wayne L. W. Miller III (born July 20, 1973) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He is a member of the Earnhardt family, as the husband of Kelley Earnhardt Miller. Miller is the 2008 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion a ...

on January 22, 2011. The couple has one child. Kelley's daughter Karsyn Elledge participates in

midget car racing Midget cars, also Speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small, with a very high power-to-weight ratio, and typically use four-cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on most ...

. She scored her first win at Millbridge Speedway on April 19, 2018. Karsyn made her first Chili Bowl start in January 2019. She is also cohost of Door Bumper Clear On April 22, 2019, Brenda Jackson, Earnhardt's biological mother, died at the age of 65 after years of battling cancer. She had served as an accounting specialist for JR Motorsports since 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Kelley Earnhardt Living people 1972 births Sportspeople from Kannapolis, North Carolina NASCAR team owners University of North Carolina at Charlotte alumni Earnhardt family Racing drivers from Charlotte, North Carolina American female racing drivers