Dale Earnhardt Jr. was quite rebellious and naughty as a kid. Of course, things were also never easy being the son of the greatest NASCAR driver ever. Junior moved around from school to school, and had little chance to make long-term friends. However, one particular school where he spent six months stood out from the rest.
Advertisement
Junior reminisced about the school in a recent episode of Dale Jr. Download. He began by narrating how a youngster walked up to him during a shoot recently and told him that his father had gone to school with him. Dale was not able to jog his memory at first. However, the name “South View Christian School” triggered a flood of memories.
Dale Jr. had quickly made friends in this particular school. The social divides that were prevalent in the other schools he’d gone to earlier were not present at South View, and he was quickly accepted into the group. He recalled that he was in seventh grade at the time, and was enrolled with his sister, Kelley.
“There were about 18 to 25 of us in a class. In our class, everybody felt like they had the exact same level of stature. As soon as I got in there, everybody was fun and friendly. We all goofed around and joked around and got in trouble and talked in class. It was like I was brought in and accepted immediately,” Dale Jr. elaborated.
Junior made 10 or 12 friends immediately. However, he got into trouble when all the excitement and fun got a bit too much. He revealed how getting written up eight times before winter break meant that a student would be expelled from the school. Junior, courtesy of his many antics, was on the verge of expulsion.
“It wouldn’t process till we got back [from winter break]. My thought was I was going to be expelled when we returned from Christmas break,” he said.
Dale Jr. then recalled how his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., fortunately made plans to put him in a military school before the news of him being expelled came out. Continuing the story, he funnily brought up something the youngster had told him during the interaction.
“He is like, ‘My dad told me one of the times that you got in big trouble, you brought a Playboy magazine to the classroom’. My jaw hit the floor. I don’t remember that. He’s like, ‘Yup. That’s what Dad said. Dad said you brought it to the classroom’,” said Dale Jr.
Junior couldn’t imagine himself committing such an act in school and was shocked by the claim. His co-hosts erupted in rounds of laughter, while also wondering how and why the icon was written up so many times.
It is no secret that the driver was quite the trouble-maker as a child. But this new story, and the Playboy episode, take his image to a different level. Then again, Junior was positive that he would not have done it.
