Born into the Earnhardt dynasty, Dale Jr. grew up around race tracks and watched the biggest stars of the sport from close quarters. Despite this access, he wasn’t interested in getting autographs from drivers early on. He spoke about this on the 12 Questions Series with Jeff Gluck and revealed who he ended up getting his first autograph from.
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“Autographs didn’t really get cool to me ’til later in life,” he said. “I have become someone who definitely appreciates autographs, but one of the very first autographs I asked for was from Richard Petty. When I was young, Richard Petty had a comic book, and it was really large in size.”
“And in this comic book, it was the story of him and Maurice (Petty) and Dale (Inman) growing up as kids and racing these homemade box cars down a hill and then growing up and racing with their dad, Lee.” He found four of these books online, purchased them, and took them to the King to get them signed. “I still have them,” he concluded with pride and satisfaction.
12 Questions with @DaleJr just dropped: https://t.co/x3b6mBWEHx
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) October 22, 2025
The Richard Petty comic books weren’t mainstream superhero comics, but rather memorabilia-type comics. This gave them a unique stature in the eyes of collectors and racing fans. Some of the key titles that were released were The Racing Pettys (1980), The Legends of NASCAR – Richard Petty (1990s), and NASCAR Adventures – Richard Petty (1991).
Why Petty did not want Dale Jr. to return to racing
Junior had missed half of the 2016 Cup Series season following severe concussions to his head. When he was medically cleared to race in 2017, Petty was one of those who expressed strong concern. The seven-time champion stated to the media that Junior must preserve his health by not climbing back into the car.
He said, “I just feel like he got through with it two or three times, and he had some pretty big knocks in the head. I’ve had them, too. I think I still live in one of them, but hitting mine was never that bad. He’s got a lot of career opportunities in front of him. He could make another career, and racing would be a minor thing for him.”
But Junior did return to the race track and competed full-time in 2017. Before retiring for good at the end of that year, he secured eight top-10 finishes.
