You never forget your first time getting a speeding ticket… especially if Dale Earnhardt was there to see it, I would imagine.
It’s no secret that Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a very complicated relationship with his dad while he was still alive, and contrary to what many people might think, Jr. never had anything handed to him. His dad made him work very, very hard for everything he got in terms of opportunities in his racing career, and he carried those lessons with him long after his dad tragically passed in 2001.
And during the Ask Jr. segment of his Dale Jr. Download podcast this week, Jr. told a great story about getting his first-ever speeding ticket when he was 16-years-old. He and his dad were leaving their farm in Mooresville, North Carolina after a day of work, and Jr. left a little ahead of his dad. He was driving down the road in his little pick up truck, and he was going too fast when he passed a highway patrolman. Jr. saw him put his brakes on, and he knew he was turning around to come get him.
Jr. went ahead and pulled over, and just as he was getting the ticket, his dad drove by. Sr. pulled off at a gas station up ahead, and waited for his son to come tell him what happened. And it was that day Jr. realized he had to get his first job, because his dad wasn’t paying for a lawyer or for a ticket.
Jr. started working at an Exxon station, pumping gas and cleaning windshields, saying he didn’t think people would believe him but that story encapsulates how his dad was about everything:
“Me and Dad were at the farm, we’re closing up and it’s time to go home. I left first, and Dad is locking the gate. I get going down the road, I’m in my little black and silver S10 pick up truck, and I’m 16, and I went past a highway patrolman and I saw him put his brake lights on.
He went down a hill, but I knew he was turning. So I pulled, over he come running up and pulled over behind me and gives me the ticket. While we’re sitting there, Dad goes by. I get the ticket and I drive on down the road, and Dad’s sitting on the side of the road at the gas station. I pull in there.
He goes, ‘He give you a ticket?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘I guess you gotta get a job.’ I said, ‘Alright.’ And so I went to an Exxon station in town and applied for a job. and I worked in the Exxon station, I pumped gas, cleaned windshields to pay for my lawyer to turn it into a muffler ticket or whatever. People ain’t gonna believe this s***, but that’s the way that Dad was.”
Jr. ultimately ended up working in his dad’s racing shop, and as he got older, he wound up racing for his dad’s race team Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, for the then-called Busch series, and he now runs his own race team, Jr. Motorsports, with his sister, Kelley. He also has a huge media company, Dirty Mo Media, and does some sportscasting throughout the NASCAR season as well.
I kind of thought his dad’s reaction to the ticket might’ve been more extreme, just based on some of the other stories Jr. has told about him over the years, but it sounds like he definitely learned his lesson and got a great story out of it that he still remembers decades later:
The full segment is available to watch here:
