While most of the NASCAR community calls Dale Earnhardt Sr. “The Intimidator”, the NASCAR legend did have a normal friendly side to him as well. Not that he was always intimidating everyone around off the racetrack. Sure, he did have quite a few people whom he might consider being his closest pals, right? Well recently, his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed just that, during a segment on his podcast.
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Junior and his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, listed out a couple of names who could be considered the closest friends of the legendary Earnhardt Sr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares details regarding his father’s best friends
During the Ask Jr. segment of his podcast, a fan had asked about Dale Earnhardt Sr’s closest friend. Responding to the question, Junior stated, “Dad’s closest pal,” and stared at his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller.
Thereafter, Kelley responded, “RC (Richard Childress) I would think.” Junior chimed in, “Tony (Eury) Sr,” and Kelley agreed. Then Junior continued, “Dad and Tony Sr. rode around in their trucks being idiots back when they were 18-19-20-21 years old. At least that was the stories. They married sisters.”
The NASCAR Hall of Famer added, “They continued to hang and be pals all through the 90s as Dad was, you know, Tony Sr. became the crew chief for the Busch car that Dad was driving that eventually I would drive. I mean, they were tight.”
“So there’s a long list that are right there, right? You could really dad maybe disagree with this. He might say somebody else but Richard (Childress) was on that list…” Kelley pitched in, “His friend Donny Reaves was in it…” Junior added, “Donny Reaves, a lot of people don’t know who Donny Reaves is…” Kelley intervened, “Very good friend of my dad’s… Car dealer up in the north of Salsbury…”
Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s loss had a profound impact on his best friend Richard Childress
Team owners Richard Childress and Earnhardt Sr. had been close friends for a long time. The seven-time Cup Series champion even races with Childress and won six championships in his cars throughout history.
However, when the unthinkable happened during the 2001 Daytona 500 race, Childress had been one of the many who had been severely devastated. There had been a point in time when he even contemplated quitting the racing scene altogether. But, thankfully, he did end up mustering the strength to carry on.
Meanwhile, around that time, some reporters had also asked Childress if he could confirm the whereabouts of Earnhardt’s final wrecked car. But Childress mentioned that he would not be answering that question. Over the years, there have been several theories but nobody knows the exact whereabouts of the car at the very moment.
