“You Can Burn Yourself Any Minute”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shares How His Parenting Approach Stands Opposite to What He Experienced During Childhood

NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Jr. was notoriously naughty, even fidgety as a child. He is happy his daughters, Isla Rose, and Nicole Lorraine, are relatively not. The tough stance Junior’s mom was forced to take while driving him around as a kid, compared to the easier way in which he manages to teach his children discipline and safety inside his truck illustrates this stark contrast. To say Dale Jr. was unruly would be an understatement. After all, his go-to ‘toy’ in his mother’s 1978 Monte Carlo was the cigarette lighter.

In a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download, the podcast crew nudged him toward his childhood by asking about the cars he had traveled in or drove back then.

“The first thing I remember riding in was my mom’s ’78 Monte Carlo,” recalled Dale Jr., before talking about how he takes his daughters around town.

“Today, we drive around in my truck, which is relatively safe, and I am making sure that the girls are buckled in perfectly. Five-point harness and all,” he added.

He couldn’t help but point out the irony in him forcing the girls to wear their seat belts and make them sit right. He was never good at following his mother’s instructions, you see.

“You know, me, the guy that was riding around laying down in the floorboard or the backseat of mom’s ’78 Marty Carlo just being a complete imbecile,” said Dale Jr, before talking about his favorite item in the car, the cigarette lighter.

“You can burn yourself any minute,” added Junior with a gleeful grin.

Thankfully for Dale Jr, the father, cars don’t come with cigarette lighters today.

Dale Jr.’s mother, Brenda Jackson, died of cancer in 2019. She was 65 at the time. From his revelations, it can be understood that she had a tough task raising Junior.

Needless to say, the instructions to a kid lying on the floorboard, or playing with the cigarette lighter had to be more explicit. Dale Jr., has it easier. But still, he admitted to being stern with instructions, asking his daughters to stay put when they do a less dangerous thing like one of them “leaning over” to the other with seatbelts on.

Junior also had a partner in crime, his sister Kelley, when it came to troublemaking.

When Dale Jr. and Kelley rolled down a hill in their parents’ car

Dale Jr. continued his childhood stories by narrating an incident when he was just two or three years old. Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Brenda had left him and his sister Kelley in the car to go pick something up at their house. Kelley put the car into gear.

“We ended up rolling down a hill. Just kind of rolled to, bumped into a building, rolled to a stop. Nothing crazy,” narrated Dale Jr.

The crew had the same reaction as most of the listeners would have. They were aghast at the fact that the JR Motorsports owner thought rolling down a hill and bumping into a building was not something crazy.

Dale Jr. did, however, admit that he was too young when the incident happened and doesn’t remember the exact details about it.

As a father, he would be glad that the troublemaker gene is dormant in his daughters.