Sounds like the lived up to the Intimidator nickname.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has talked extensively about his complex, at best, relationship with his dad Dale Earnhardt, on his Dale Jr. Download podcast, and the Earnhardt children actually a pretty difficult childhood compared to what most people probably think. Their relationship with their dad seemed to be strained for most of their lives.
But naturally, Dale Jr. wanted to be just like his dad and race, though he sometimes had difficulty voicing that, especially when he was younger. And like many fathers and sons, they often butted heads. Jr. has told countless stories that exemplify their friction over the years. And during a recent episode of the podcast he does with his wife, Amy, Jr. once again spoke about the dynamic with his dad outside of racing.
He says that his dad was “super scary” in all aspects of life, and he never turned that mode off:
“My dad was super scary. You know how they talk about how he was tenacious on the racetrack, like, he was always in that mode. My dad… you didn’t try to sneak s*** by him. You didn’t risk it.”
Amy pointed out the fact that Jr. actually tested his dad all the time, which is exactly what I was thinking as he explained the prior point, but Jr. says he never, ever got away with any of it and he learned all of those lessons the very hard way:
“I did, but I got a hard lesson from it all. I never got away with it.”
Jr. then recalled a story from one of the first times he went hunting with his dad and some friends, and Jr. and his friend got bored and decided to play with some fire, literally, and lit a twig on fire. His dad was nowhere around but about five minutes went by, and here comes Sr. asking if they were playing with fire.
Of course, he could smell it, but Jr. was still baffled by the fact that his dad had figured that out so quickly:
“One of the funniest things, I had Jodie Davis on as the guest this week, one of Dad‘s friends. and Jody used to hunt at this hunting camp in Alabama with Dad, and that was one of the very first places I went with Dad to go hunting. Brad Cozart, who is the son of our pastor, he was with me.
We set this little twig on fire or something, minutes ago, and you know, we threw it away. We’re sitting there just bored, dad comes out, and he goes, ‘Y’all playing with fire?’ I was like, how the hell did he know that? You could smell it, and I’m like, how the hell does he know? And then I couldn’t lie, you know, cause I knew he knew somehow.
And you just couldn’t get anything by him, he was gonna figure it out. But he was mad that we were playing with fire, which I get it, dude, if I called our little girls f****** with a lighter and trying to set something on fire I would lose my s***. I’d be like, ‘What the f*** is that?'”
I genuinely can’t imagine what it would have been like to grow up with Sr. as a dad, and like Jr. said, those kids didn’t get away with anything… but Jr. gave him hell trying anyways, and I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoy listening to all of those stories now.
But to be fair, Sr. was in the right on this one… definitely don’t want to boys out in the woods just lighting things on fire:
