This week on his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. recounted the only time he could recall his father getting into a fight. Perhaps surprisingly, despite his dad’s many enemies on the NASCAR circuit and his nickname, “The Intimidator,” it didn’t happen at a racetrack.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. got that nickname for obvious reasons. He was never afraid to move another car out of the way if he felt it was in his way. The black paint scheme of his Goodwrench Chevrolet only added to his mystique. So, it wasn’t uncommon for Senior to rub some people the wrong way, often literally.
Following Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney getting into a fight following the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol on Saturday, The Dale Jr. Download talked about some of the more memorable fights in NASCAR over the years. Kyle Busch and Joey Logano’s fight got brought up, as did Marcos Ambrose fighting with Casey Mears.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. remembers the only time his dad got into a fight
However, during this week’s “Ask Jr.” segment of the podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. recalled the only time he could remember seeing his father get into a fight, and, surprisingly, it had nothing to do with racing. Many longtime racing fans will certainly remember the aftermath.
“Dad, I don’t think was ever in a fight. I don’t think I’ve ever,” Junior recalled. “Only time I know dad threw hands was on on the dude at the farm that shot his deer, but he never fought at the racetrack that I know of.
“So, a guy was working on a tractor during the day on dad’s property, fixing a big tractor. And he saw some deer, went to a bar later that afternoon, happy hour drinking with a buddy of his telling his buddy about the deer. The more they drank, the braver they got. They decided they were gonna come back to dad’s property at dark, around dark, jump the fence and shoot one of the deer, right?
Dale Earnhardt hunted a hunter on his property
“Dad and his farm manager guy are walking the power line, and they’re in the tree line walking this power line,” Dale Jr. explained. “Just happened to be there that day. And they heard the gunshot and they saw the deer run down the power line and fall down. And so they hid in the tree line and waited for those guys to come up to the deer.
“And when they got to the deer, dad just ran after the one with the gun and he tackled the guy and broke his hand on his face,” Dale Jr. continued. “And the only reason why he stopped punching the guy was ’cause the guy, he recognized the guy’s voice, and his face I guess, once he started saying, ‘Hey man, stop.’ So dad held him there until the cops got there.
Earnhardt ended up with his hand in a cast after the fight
Dale Jr. then recalled how the incident happened shortly before the NASCAR banquet where his dad was getting his award for being the 1993 Cup Series champion.
“He ended up getting his cast on his arm and he went to the banquet with that cast and his tux, his black and white cast. And he told everybody a lie, he told everybody a lie about how it happened.”
“He didn’t want people to know about his deer, he didn’t want more people showing up, trying to sneak onto his property ’cause he had some really big bucks on that property,” Dale Jr. added. “He wasn’t hunting it, he was just wanting them to be there ’cause he liked watching ’em. And so he told a different story.”