The Earnhardts are one of racing’s most prominent clans. Stemming from the brutal speed of Dale Earnhardt Sr., his son Earnhardt Jr. carried the family’s legacy to further heights and popularity. The fandom is well aware of the close relationship that this father-son duo shared. But who could have guessed that the only reason Junior got behind the wheel was to get his father’s attention, who seldom paid any to him as a kid?
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Conversing with Graham Bensinger earlier this year, Earnhardt Jr. opened a Pandora’s box of emotions about his relationship with his father. He said, “I didn’t have any real athletic attributes to bring home a trophy for any kind of sports in school. Finally, when I started racing and won a couple of races, I noticed we would talk about it. He’d come in the shop and want to know what happened.”
“So I got more and more into, ‘Hey! I want to do racing because it gets me closer to Dad’.”
Junior also revealed with a strong tinge of sadness how his father never went to any of his soccer games or even his high school graduation. During these nascent years of Junior, his father was running riot in the tracks of NASCAR, stacking up championships faster than anybody could count. Being one of the original stalwarts of the sport, Earnhardt’s job was not an easy one.
But from the eyes of a young Earnhardt Jr., it was just plain old absence.
He also added to Bensinger that he was a big disappointment to his father until he started racing. He said, “I really didn’t get to start communicating with him and building a relationship with him until I drove and raced.” Thankfully, once he got behind the wheel, the field turned green between them.
How Dale Sr. kept pushing Dale Earnhardt Jr. towards greatness till the end
It is quite evident from Junior’s words that his father’s love for the engine was beyond reason. By taking up racing as a career and proving himself to be good at it, Junior had filled what would have no doubt been a void in Earnhardt Sr.’s heart. A reflection of the same can be seen in the scenes after Junior’s first Cup Series win in Texas in 2000.
Earnhardt Sr. can be spotted with a proud grin on his face, pulling his son down from the car and embracing him in a tight hug.
This interesting yet complicated story came to an end in the Daytona 500 of 2001 when Earnhardt Sr. pushed his son towards the checkered flag in the final lap before suffering a crash that ended his life. Senior positioning himself behind his son in that race was more symbolic than strategy.
After an entire life of nudging him to new heights as an individual and driver, his watch had ended.
