Dale Earnhardt Jr. has grown accustomed to gestures from fans, a byproduct of being one of the most recognizable figures the sport has ever produced. Autographs, letters, and memorabilia arrive regularly. Early in 2025, however, he received something entirely different, a gift that carried the weight of history and landed with uncommon emotional force.
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This gift did not come from a supporter of his own career, but from a devoted admirer of his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., and it resonated so deeply that Junior shared the moment publicly on his podcast.
The gift was one of Dale Sr.’s former race cars, a black No. 3 Chevrolet wearing the exact Goodwrench paint scheme from the 1990 season, the year Senior won his fourth NASCAR Cup Series championship. A lifelong fan had owned the car for years and, upon his passing, chose to will it to Senior’s son.
Dale Sr., a seven-time Cup Series champion, built one of the most devoted fanbases motorsports has ever seen. That loyalty has endured well beyond his fatal crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. A 2022 Nielsen study ranked NASCAR fandom as the most loyal among major U.S. sports, with Dale Sr.’s legacy cited as a driving force behind that sustained connection. The return of the No. 3 car was a living example of that bond.
The timing made the moment even more surreal as it had arrived on the death anniversary of Dale Sr. In a video clip from Cleetus McFarland’s tour of JR Motorsports, Dale Jr. appeared, showing the car just hours after it arrived, still learning its quirks and history. Recounting the experience on The Dale Jr. Download, he explained how unexpected the delivery had been.
“I had a surprise today. There was a gentleman that owned a race car that was an RCR Earnhardt car from the 90s, and he passed away and willed it to me, and the car is here today for the very first time.”
Today, on the anniversary of Dale Sr.’s passing, @DaleJr received a very special gift. 3️⃣ pic.twitter.com/8hoZb6UKPW
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) February 19, 2025
Gratitude came through as he continued. “So, I’m very thankful for that. What an incredible surprise.” He shared that it was an RCR car and still has the original orange interior.
Citing how the car actually was physically in Ireland, probably at one point, which is strange, because it traveled the world and came back to Dale Jr., the rightful heir of his father’s possession. He noted, “They took the original hood off. It’s the way Dad raced it the last time he drove it.”
Junior said he planned to contact Richard Childress Racing to trace the car’s lineage, hoping to learn when it was sold, identify the chassis number, and determine which races that specific chassis ran during his father’s tenure. He expected those records to exist and wanted the full story to match the metal now sitting in front of him.
The car’s journey only added to the sense of irony. Junior recalled how the original hood had spent four decades tucked away in the rafters of his uncle’s garage. When his uncle began clearing out possessions, Junior retrieved the hood without knowing the car itself would soon reenter his life. That the hood and car eventually reunited, returning to the Earnhardt family after traveling across continents, struck him as almost unbelievable.
