CLEVELAND, N.C. â€” Dale Earnhardt Jr. strolled onto the commercial set Wednesday afternoon much like the other actors and not like he owned the place.

That is typical for the down-to-earth driver.

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But on the set of a commercial for the Sprint All-Star Race, Earnhardt actually DID own the place.

For the last couple of years, Earnhardt has allowed Sprint to film the commercial at the Wild West town he has built on his property. It is called Whisky River, and Earnhardt has a chain of bars that now carry the same moniker.

â€œItâ€™s cool,â€ Earnhardt said. â€œFor the longest time, I was really nervous or apprehensive to show this place off or let anybody see it and didnâ€™t want people to get the wrong idea.

â€œItâ€™s really neat and something I appreciate.â€

The Old West town includes a saloon where the commercial was shot, a bank building, a jail (with cells), a church (where one of his friends got married), an infirmary (stocked with Junior-endorsed Goodyâ€™s Headache Powder) and a hotel (where those who have too much fun at the bar can sleep).

Earnhardt occasionally rents out the area for groups but mainly built it as a place to escape â€” or a place for him and his friends to hang out and watch his beloved Washington Redskins play.

â€œWeâ€™ve had a lot of good times in this place,â€ Earnhardt said. â€œI got to see the Redskins beat the Cowboys the night before New Yearâ€™s.â€

When it was built several years ago, Earnhardt used wood from local mills that had closed. He had gotten the idea from seeing a â€œ60 Minutesâ€ episode where Willie Nelson had a similar town on his property.

â€œI was just thinking about something to build that I can enjoy that would be on the property but out of the house,â€ Earnhardt said. â€œIâ€™m really into the Westerns. â€¦ It just seemed like a fun, mysterious time.â€

Earnhardtâ€™s hesitation to show off the property was because he was concerned about the public perception.

â€œI just get nervous showing off material things that are expensive,â€ Earnhardt said. â€œWhen you build something like this, people might have (a reaction of), â€˜Thatâ€™s cool,â€™ and some people say, â€˜Man, thatâ€™s a guy with a lot of money making dumb decisions.â€™

â€œI didnâ€™t want to have to listen to that.â€

Public perception is important to Earnhardt, winner of 10 most popular driver awards and the son of seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. Thatâ€™s why he didnâ€™t appear in the commercial last year â€” because he had not yet qualified for the all-star main event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He qualified for this yearâ€™s event with his win last June at Michigan.

â€œIt would be arrogant or put-offish if I had done the commercial last year not having a guaranteed spot in the race,â€ Earnhardt said.

The commercial this year includes Earnhardt, fellow drivers Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer, former crew chief and now TV personalities Ray Evernham and Jeff Hammond and NASCAR legend Richard Petty. Earnhardt had a couple of lines in the commercial and spent less than an hour on the set.

His representatives approved the lines, and Earnhardt was briefed on the commercialâ€™s content and his lines as he was getting makeup on his hands and face.

â€œI donâ€™t really to get involved in that end of it,â€ Earnhardt said. â€œI just donâ€™t want to say anything stupid.â€

Evernham said the property is fun to visit.

â€œItâ€™s the ultimate guyâ€™s playground,â€ Evernham said. â€œItâ€™s good to be Junior. Itâ€™s racing that provided the opportunity to do this so Iâ€™m glad he opens it up to share it with people to do some of the footage and filming that theyâ€™re doing.â€

For Earnhardt, he loves it when the icons of the sport see it. Hall of Famer Junior Johnson and NASCAR president Mike Helton have been in commercials at the site in the past, and Petty was in the one filmed last week.

â€œTheir impression, I imagine, would be similar to what my dad would think about it,â€ Earnhardt said. â€œSo it means a lot to me to show it off to people like that.â€