One would assume that for someone with the background of Dale Earnhardt Jr., exposure to racing would be the most obvious thing in the world. However, that wasn’t the case. In fact, it was an unfortunate incident early in his childhood that eventually led him to a place where he was not only exposed to but also fell in love with racing.
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During an appearance on an episode of the Audiodrama podcast last year, Junior was asked about his earliest memories of racing. “Probably at Charlotte Motor Speedway, I was at a qualifying session for one of the Charlotte races, one of the Cup races, and we were watching the cars qualify. That was 1982, probably 1983. I was about seven years old,” he said as he described the unfortunate incident that led him to that place.
“My parents separated, and I lived with my mom until 1981. And our house burned down. We lived in this small house in Kannapolis. I woke up one morning, and the kitchen was on fire, so she was broke and had to give custody of me and my sister to my dad. We never saw Dad. I remember maybe standing at his house one weekend. So I didn’t really know him. It was really weird.”
Junior, who was 6 at this point, suddenly found himself living in his father’s garage with all his and his sister, Kelley’s stuff. And it wasn’t long after that point that he was exposed to his father’s day job. “We started going to the racetrack. Now I’m at the racetrack. Now I’m like, ‘This is cool. This is fun. Racing is amazing,'” he recalled.
“Instantly, you’re drugged into that world and loving it, loving everything about it.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s heart-wrenching confession after his biggest NASCAR achievement
Even though Earnhardt Jr. never won a Cup Series title, his influence and impact on NASCAR is undeniable. And that was the reason, along with his on-track exploits, that he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2022.
This was arguably the biggest moment of Junior’s career. But it was also a moment in which he wondered how his late father, the great Dale Earnhardt Sr. would react, not just to his success, but to the success of Kelley Earnhardt as well.
“I would do anything to hear what he thinks about all the things we’ve done and everything we’ve been involved in. I would just do anything to really, really truly know what his words would be,” Junior said as per FOX News, adding that he thinks about it “all the time.”
