The footage we needed.
Last year, Prime Video released the four-part series called Earnhardt, which focuses on the life and legacy of the late, great Dale Earnhardt Sr.. It features interviews from Dale’s friends, family, and obviously his son, Dale Jr., the documentary will also feature never-before-seen footage of Dale during his racing career from both his personal and professional life.
In fact, on his podcast the Dale Jr. Download podcast a few years back, Dale Earnhardt Jr. recalled a testy time after he beat his dad in an exhibition race in Japan back in 1999.
They had pushed and bumped each other some during the race, but that’s something The Intimidator was kind of known for, and Jr. didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary. At this time, he would’ve been around 24 or 25-years-old, and he wound up beating his dad in the race.
Let’s just say, Sr. didn’t take it too well…
“Me and dad got into it at Japan one time, at the exhibition race in 1999. So me and him bumped each other little bit on the track, he was really, really, really ticked off.
I thought what happened on the track was kind par for the course, and nothing I hadn’t seen before. But I didn’t know if he was just ready to get out of there, ready to fly back to America, but he wasn’t in a good mood.”
And while they were changing, out of nowhere, Dale Sr. threw a show at his son pretty hard, and Jr. thinks he was definitely trying to hit him, though he had bad aim and wound up barely missing him, hitting the wall instead:
“He threw a shoe at me, we were in this little trailer changing clothes after the race. I was super happy ‘cuz I beat dad, that was the whole goal of the trip. It went right by my head, though, very close.
I was looking down, and it came by at a high rate of speed. It would’ve hurt if it had hit me. I know his aim ain’t that great, so I think his intention was to hit me cuz it came pretty close. If he’d have hit me, then we would’ve both been pissed. That wouldn’t have been good. We didn’t really have words, it was just kind like, I’m upset with you.”
We all know Sr. didn’t like losing, but damn… he definitely didn’t like losing to his son, or maybe he was just tired? Who knows…
And since Prime Video just released never-before-seen footage from the race, we get even more context from Jr., where he explained how excited he was to race against his dad:
“We get the invitation to go race in Japan. It dawned on me, me and dad are gonna be on the track together. So I pull out on pit road and I waited, and I’m looking in the mirror, here he comes. I’m firing my car up, he goes by, and I pull out on the track behind him. He’s going, he don’t give a s***.
We start the race, and it was just like, ‘Oh my god, I’m on the f******* track with my dad.’ We get down to the last ten laps, and I’m knifing up through there, trying to pass vs many cars as I can. And I get to dad, so I slide in front of him, and he has to lift or he’s gonna hit the wall.
And he got so mad, he was like, ‘You son of a b***.’ I run sixth, and he finishes 8th, and I’m like, ‘Damn right. I run good.’ Had that moment early in the race where I was top three, and beat dad, that’s kinda neat.”
Even now when he’s giving the interview, you can tell how proud and excited Jr. was, which honestly makes his dad’s reaction kind of sad… Jr. says he didn’t realize just how annoyed his dad was initially, because he was always grumpy, but the show flying at his head confirmed it:
“And dad comes in and sits down, and he’s made, I can see it. But I don’t know, I mean, f***, he’s always grumpy. He bends over to take his shoe off, and I’m looking at him, and I bent down to take my shoe off, and his shoe went over my head and hit the wall behind me.
He threw that son of a b*** as hard as he could. As soon as I looked up, the door opened and somebody says, ‘Dale, they want you out here for an interview. Can you do that? ‘ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’ So I left.”
The vintage interview Jr. is referring too is also included, and of course, he was asked about beating his dad:
“Well, that was kinda important, I don’t think he was too happy about it.”
I’d say that’s an understatement…
Though he would’ve never told him, and he certainly wouldn’t have acted like it, I’m sure deep down, his dad really was proud of him for that, even if he didn’t seem too thrilled in the moment. It’s a famous story which Jr. has talked about a lot, but this vintage footage is so incredibly cool and the fact that they’re finally putting it out after all these years has been a long time coming.
Check it out:
Here’s Jr.’s full explanation from the podcast:
