I mean, this beats just about all I’ve ever heard.
We all know Dale Earnhardt Sr. was a badass, one of a kind legend, and there are more than a few stories that exemplify his outlaw spirit and truly intimidating personality.
But this story here… this is just crazy.
On Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast the Dale Jr. Download this week, they had on guest Tony Furr, who is a former crew chief and legend in the NASCAR world.
He’s also a North Carolina native like Dale Sr., and they were friends long before either one of them had any sort of notoriety or success in racing.
So of course, he has plenty of good stories about The Intimidator from way, way back, and he shared some great ones with Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis this week, including the fact that Dale Sr. wasn’t just a scary driver on the track…
He didn’t mess around off the track, either, which really comes as no surprise:
“Your dad was fearless. He was fearless. I’m tellin’ you right now, there was only one of ’em, and he was the only one.
He wasn’t scare of, I mean, anything. And you could not dare him to do nothin’.”
In fact, Dale Sr. would actually keep his truck dashboard stocked with lug nuts, which he would legitimately throw at people’s windshields if he did something they didn’t like on the road, especially when he had a trailer behind him:
“We would leave the race track, and he would grab a handful of lug nuts, throw ’em on the dash.
And somebody passed us, or run us off a ramp, or done something wrong, he’d pitch a couple lug nuts in their windshield.”
To which Jr. rightfully responded:
“Damn! What a wild man.”
And Tony said:
“He was, he was. He’d always have eight or 10 lug nuts, at least.”
I mean, absolutely insane…
Tony also told another insane story about Dale Sr. leaving tire marks on people’s cars parked out in the street if there was something about it he didn’t like too:
“I know another time… he come home and the trailer didn’t have no fenders on it, and there would be cars running up and down the road there that had wheel marks on the side of them.”
To which Dale Jr. responded:
“He’d put the trailer in the damn parked cars on the street!”
And of course, Sr. would throw in that signature lug nut for good measure:
“Well, I mean, they come off that ramp, and if he didn’t like the way they were coming off that ramp, and it was gonna be at the same time, timing was everything, you know… bam!
And then throw a lug nut over.”
And apparently, he also had a loud speaker in the righthand corner of his truck, so he could tell them what the problem was, as well…
“In his truck, he had a loud speaker sittin’ over in the righthand corner, with a CB.
Everybody had CB’s, so he could holler at people and stuff right there.”
I mean, the man was a true one of a kind in every sense of the term.
Keep in mind, these stories are from the very early days, when Jr. says his dad was still young and making some very bad decisions, so I don’t think it’s something he continued doing throughout his life by any stretch of the imagination, either.
And of course, I’m not saying that was a good thing to do at all, but something about it just feels so badass to me, for better or worse…
Sometimes calling Dale Sr. a “legend” or an “icon” still doesn’t feel like enough, honestly. You really can’t make stuff like this up, either, so I’m, inclined to believe every word of it.
Make sure you check it out for yourself, it’s really a great episode:
Watch Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s Interview After His Very First Hometown Win In Charlotte
The iconic Coca Cola 600 is this weekend in Concord, North Carolina.
Of course, it’s always an exciting race, as it’s the longest one of the year at 600 miles and happens in the backyard of NASCAR at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The drivers always seem to enjoy it, too, as there’s not a whole lot of travel involved for them and tons of their friends and family get to make it the annual Memorial Day weekend race.
And in honor of one of racings biggest events, I want to throw it back to the late, great Dale Earnhardt’s very first win at his hometown track (he was from small town Kannapolis that’s right down the road from CMS).
Though this was the fall National 500 race that was held in October, it was a big deal when The Intimidator scored his first win at Charlotte, and he added that there was no better place to win:
“There’s no better place to win than home. It was a great day, you know, it wasn’t weather wise, but it was racing wise.
Always have a good show here in Charlotte, and had all the hometown people and fans here.
I’m just enjoying it. I’m making new friends and seeing new friends, and all my old ones. It’s good to win at Charlotte because all my old friends and new friends are there.”
I always love finding old footage of him from early in his career, and he was just 29 years old in this interview. He always had that certain star power about him that you could never quite put your finger on, but made him an American icon we all still love to this day.
Also, how iconic is that incredible stache paired with the vintage Busch jacket (with a fur collar, no less) he has on both after the race and in the TV appearance the next morning?
It simply doesn’t get any cooler or more legendary than this:
Sr. started in 4th place, and led 148 laps of the 334 lap event. He also collected $49,050 in winnings on this day… not too shabby for a very first hometown victory.
Check out some of the race highlights here:
Damn I’m Good – Get the shirt HERE
Dale Earnhardt’s Sun Drop Commercial Might Be The Greatest Soda Commercial Of All Time
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.
Commercials or drivers, for that matter…
In the early ’90s, Dale Earnhardt Sr. starred in a commercial for long-time sponsor Sun Drop, the citrus soda popular in the South. And frankly, it might just be the most glorious thing you’ll see today. A North Carolina delicacy, Sun Drop sponsored the Intimidator, beginning in the 1970s and running all the way through the early ’90s.
It’s also a favorite drink of another Carolina icon, the great Eric Church:
“I grew up in North Carolina, and they have a soft drink called Sun Drop. I love the diet version of it. It’s the greatest thing on the face of the earth. I always have it in my fridge – bus fridge and home fridge.”
Glorious. Absolutely glorious. And that perfectly trimmed, signature Dale Sr. stache is something to be admired.
What do we gotta do to get commercials like this back on the air…
