“I Don’t Like That”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Talks About the Moments That Gave Him a Reputation of Being Aggressive

Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t someone one would associate with having an aggressive personality, be it on or off the race track. But there was a time during his career when he gained such a reputation. Recently, while speaking with former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace, the Hall of Famer revealed the exact moment that earned him the reputation of being aggressive.

During his conversation with Wallace, Junior revealed that he had a moment in Atlanta with Ryan Newman, saying, “Me and Ryan had a couple of incidents and they weren’t on short track they were at Atlanta. Back-to-back races. We’re running the I’m running the top. I’ve got the top figured out, this is like 2004, 2003.”

Junior mentioned that very few individuals would race at the top line of the racetrack. He described how when one ran out at the top of Atlanta back in 2003, they would be approximately 10 miles an hour faster than the guys on the bottom. He added, “And Ryan the way he races which is fine. We love the way Ryan races.”

“Ryan would come up off the bottom and pull right up in front of you and you gotta stop and you’re going 10 miles an hour faster and you got to incredible run off the top of the race track and you just got to stop or go to the inside and I’m like, I don’t like that Ryan. So I ran in the back of him and spun him out and he wrecked.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he was not as aggressive as his father

Speaking further into the conversation, Junior said, “His motorcoach was right next to mine. I thought he’s gonna whoop my a** when I saw him into the driver’s motorcoach spot after the race. But it would come he came up to me and I said, ‘Man, I gotta run off the top why the hell would you pull in front of me just leave me the outside lane?'”

“He said, ‘Well, why don’t you go inside and I said, Well, I’m running the top. I want the top and you pulled up in front of my a**. I’m going too fast. I can’t stop. And we had this little conversation about it.”

Junior then mentioned that when they got back to Atlanta, Newman did the same move on his once again. He said, “I mean, it was a carbon copy. And I jacked him up and spun around again.” 

According to the Hall of Famer, he believes that those two incidents in Atlanta may have been the reason for Newman to believe that he was an aggressive driver on the race track. “But I felt like I kind of was I certainly wasn’t as rough as Dad (Dale Earnhardt Sr.) was,” Junior concluded. Earnhardt Sr. had the nickname of ‘The Intimidator’ for a reason, something that wasn’t exactly the overall reputation Junior shared.