Bristol Motor Speedway has been both good and bad to Dale Earnhardt Jr. as both a race fan and as a race car driver. In 35 career NASCAR Cup starts at the 0.533-mile, high-banked oval, Junior won just once, along with eight top five and 16 top 10 finishes.
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Bristol has long been one of Junior’s favorite racetracks. But arguably his favorite memory of the place wasn’t his own, but rather involved his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., which Junior talked about in this week’s edition of the Dale Jr. Download podcast.
“Yeah, my ‘favorite memory’, I have a lot, dude,” Junior said, before launching into the race he remembers the most, but it was anything but a good story ending.
“1984, this is when I’m 10. So, forgive me if I got some of the statistics wrong, but I think Dad’s leading the race,” Junior recalled. “This is very early, like year two or three of living with Dad and really, really knowing like what my Dad does, and going to these races.
“I’m going, ‘Holy crap, like this is big. This is a big deal.’ So we’re at the Bristol Night Race, Dad’s leading, he’s in the blue goose, the blue Wrangler car with the yellow hood.”
The race is getting close to the finish when the elder Earnhardt, according to Junior’s account, “spins down the front straightaway and all four tires are flat and he’s kind of stuck, right?
“Trying to get going, and he gets lapped, and ended up losing the race. Terry Labonte won and he (the elder Earnhardt) is in a battle for the championship with Terry, neck and neck for the most part up until that point in the season.
“And I remember, even at 10 years old, being aware enough that Dad spinning out of the lead and having four flat tires and losing a lap, all that was bad.”
Compounding things was Labonte’s car was among the top rides in the series that season. “Terry was consistent every single week, running top five, top four, top three,” Junior said.
“And I’m like, ‘We can’t have races like this.’ I cried. I was sitting up on top of a comfort coach van, dead center of the infield.
“I remember looking across toward the flag stand and being able to barely kind of see Dad’s car between Dad and his pit crew and other vans and other obstacles and buildings and so forth.
“And just there he goes sliding backwards and I’m like crap. I remember crying because it was heartbreaking. It was devastating, man. And that was why racing was amazing.”
Harry Gant wound up finishing second to Labonte for the championship that season, followed by Bill Elliott and Dale Sr. in fourth. It was almost as if that Bristol Night Race was the beginning of the end for Earnhardt’s championship bid that season.
But as sad as Junior was for his father losing that one summer night at Bristol in ’84, there were a lot more good times on the horizon, as the elder Earnhardt would ultimately go on to win nine of his 43 career Cup starts at Bristol, along with 20 top five and 30 top 10 finishes.
Even more, although Earnhardt fell short of Labonte for the ’84 Cup crown, the driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet would bounce back to win six of his seven career Cup championships in 10 subsequent seasons.
Then there’s Junior’s favorite Bristol story and it involved him
But Junior does have a favorite story about Bristol that involved him. After winning the 2004 Xfinity Series race on a Friday night, Junior doubled-up by earning his only Cup win there the following night.
When a reporter asked Junior why he was so excited, the younger Earnhardt uttered arguably the most famous line of his racing career, three words that folks still recall today.
Those three immortal words? Why, of course, “It’s Bristol, baby!”
