The 1998 Coca-Cola 500 in Twin Ring Motegi, Japan, was the first time that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., raced against each other. The exhibition event was NASCAR’s last visit to the land of the rising sun, and it ended with extreme tension between the father-son duo. Richard Childress played a main role in the drama.
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With about 10 laps to go in the race, Earnhardt Sr. was running in the top 10, decided he wouldn’t be able to win, and settled for maintaining his position. He refused to go to the pits for fresh tires because he thought it would be a waste of resources. Dale Jr., however, had a different plan. Running behind his father, he went to the pits for new tires.
Childress loaned him the rubber, which was originally meant to go to Earnhardt Sr.’s car, and he came back up on the circuit intending to grab more spots. As he did, he forced Earnhardt Sr. into the wall off Turn four before getting ahead of him. The Intimidator tried spinning him back but couldn’t pull off much damage.
He was left infuriated at how this went down. In a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Jr. and Childress recalled this incident and how they’d heard an earful from Earnhardt Sr. afterward. Childress said, “I never will forget you on that bus just sitting over like this, and I was sitting I think next deal or something both of us had our head down we didn’t say nothing for a while.”
Dale Jr. joked that his father had thrown a shoe at him, nearly taking his head off, before admitting that the 13-hour flight back home was a particularly quiet and painful one. Dale Jr. ultimately finished the race in sixth place, two spots ahead of Earnhardt Sr. The victory went to Mike Skinner after a tough battle with Jeff Gordon.
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This wasn’t the only time that Dale Jr. and Childress were involved in a tricky situation together. Following the Cup Series race in Martinsville last year, there were accusations of race manipulation against Richard Childress Racing. Dale Jr. had made some comments against the team at this time and earned the wrath of Childress.
He revealed in the podcast that the benefactor had spoken to him before the Xfinity Series championship race in Phoenix and expressed roughly that he didn’t appreciate the criticism. Fortunately, Childress does not even remember the sequence happening.
