Of course he found out… dads always find out.
Over the years, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has told many stories about his legendary father Dale Earnhardt and some of his own wild antics back in the day, and when he moved in with his father at the age of 7 after his mother’s house caught on fire, he had quite an adjustment to his new life.
Jr. has spoken openly many times about the rocky relationship he had with his father for much of his life, and Dale Sr. was very strict and didn’t let Jr. get away with much…
So the story Jr. told on his Bless Your Hardt podcast with his wife, Amy, was no surprise. Jr. recalled pawning off one of his dad’s business cards at a place in Kannapolis, where he made a quick $100 after finding an entire box of them in a closet.
He was around 16-years old, and had seen an article in a magazine that had a photo of Dale’s original business cards, and Jr. knew where there was still a box of them from many years ago. Jr. says they were brand new, still in the sleeve, and in mint condition. Soon after, Sr. and Teresa were going to a race, and Jr. was going to stay with their family friends while his parents were away.
They went and bought candy and all kinds of stuff, threw eggs at people’s houses, and had a big ‘ol time. They didn’t get in trouble or found out, so Jr.’s thinking it’s all well and good. Well, a couple weeks later, he learned that his dad found out. One of Sr.’s employees was a regular at the card shop, and he went and bought it there and the owner told him Jr. was the one who sold it to him:
“I would snoop around his house, like, I was always curious as to what Dad and them we’re hiding in the closets and everything. So I’m looking in this magazine, and in this magazine, it showed a business card of Dads, and it said, ‘This is believed to be Dale Earnhardt’s very first business card from 1976.’
And I said, I know where a bunch of those are. Right out here in this little closet. So I go out there, and I grabbed a handful of them. I take this card to a card shop in Kannapolis, and I sold it. Sold one of them for $100.
A couple weeks later, dad comes into the room, or calls me upstairs, whatever, and he goes, ‘You got in my closet. Got some business cards out of there.’ And I got big-time punishment.”
Honestly, his dad should’ve been impressed by his business prowess at a very young age… Jr. wanted some quick cash, but he clearly didn’t’ think through the fact that it had a high likelihood of getting back to his dad.
Jr. also recalled stealing a bunch of change worth $80 from Sr.’s stash where he would put loose change at the end of the day, and buying a Game Boy and games on his own. Well, when he was sitting on his couch playing it the next say, his dad wanted to know where he got the money to buy something like that.
As you can imagine, it didn’t go over well…
“He had this big water jug in his room, and he would always come home with change his pocket and he put it in there over and over and over. And I pulled about $80 out of that thing in quarters one day. Went and bought me a Game Boy and some games, and then was playing it on the couch the next day.
And they were like, ‘Where the hell did you get that?’ And I’m like, ‘What? Game Boy. Not everybody has a Game Boy?’ and that got me in big trouble. I got in real big trouble.”
Now that I can understand… and I do wonder why Jr. just had it out in the open, knowing his dad would certainly question it.
These kinds of stories just never get old:
@dirtymomedia_It takes guts to try to pull one over on dad, a.k.a The Intimidator … twice. 📇😅♬ original sound – Dirty Mo Media
The full podcast is available below.
