He played it off pretty well, to be honest…
This week on his podcast the Dale Jr. Download, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. told a story about what I believe it the first time he ever met Dwight Yoakam, who he is a huge fan of to this day.
Dale Jr. remembered his team telling him Dwight was going to stop by before a race at Fontana in 2015, though it didn’t exactly go how he expected… when he walked out of his camper, Dwight was already singing “Fast as You” and essentially serenading Jr.:
“Somebody surprised me, we were out at Fontana, and I’m retiring, or it’s my birthday or something, some occasion, and they surprised me and had Dwight come by. Literally, it was weird, I know he’s coming, I know I’m gonna meet him.
I’m excited, I’m pumped, and they’re like, ‘Hey man, Dwight’s here.’ And this is race morning, I’m nervous, I’m anxious about the race too. I get super nervous on race morning. And I step out of the camper, and he’s got his guitar and starts playing and singing along, and I’m like, ‘What do I do here?'”
Jr. says it was a bit “awkward,” so he decided to just sing with him… which helped a little, but not really, it sounds like:
“He’s walking toward me, singing this song that he knows I like, and I’m like, I’m not gonna let him sing it to me. So I’m gonna sing it with him so it’s less awkward… it will still be awkward, but less awkward.
It was awkward, but I tried to make it less awkward by singing along. We had a whole laugh about that.”
I feel like most people who aren’t professional musicians wouldn’t really know what to do in that situation, especially considering it was the first time they’d met in person, and honestly, the video looks exactly how Dale Jr. described it… what a memory:
They also talked about how cool it was when Yoakam played Dale Jr.’s Hall of Fame party, which his wife, Amy surprised him with a private concert at local venue The Fillmore:
And interestingly enough, Yoakam referenced Jr. in his song “International Heartache,” which opens with him singing about driving through Charlotte, North Carolina, the home of racing:
“She drove South I-95 straight though Carolina
She didn’t use no damn map to find her way
She pulled off on a state route
Just north of Charlotte
And took mostly county roads the rest of the day”
It’s a breakup song, Jr. remembered the part where Yoakam talks about the girl throwing her ex’s “Dale Jr. poster” out into the yard:
“She drove up across the yard
And through his momma’s garden
Didn’t touch the brakes slammed
Right into his Chevrolet
Tossed out his clothes, boots
Bud cap, and signed Dale Jr. poster
Then shot the whole mess neon green
With a can of Dupont spray”
It’s a banger, honestly… check it out if you haven’t heard it before:
“Intentional Heartache”
The full podcast is available below.
