NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon took surprising lesson from Dale Earnhardt
Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt were fierce NASCAR rivals in the 1990s before developing a close friendship in the years before 'The Intimidator's' tragic death
Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt were the titans of NASCAR in the '90s, with Gordon breaking Earnhardt's winning streak by clinching the 1995 Winston Cup Series title, preventing the legendary driver from increasing his championships before his untimely passing in 2001.
The spotlight has returned to Earnhardt's legacy with the dropping of a fresh docuseries on Amazon Prime Video. His progeny, Dale Earnhardt Jr. divulged how their rapport evolved over time and was also caught off guard by unexpected insights shared by his sister, Kelley.
She also disclosed their trepidation regarding potential legal consequences for visiting their father’s grave due to being persona non grata there.
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Gordon, still an integral figure at Hendrick Motorsports, made waves with comments about future team acquisitions and has candidly discussed his dynamic with Earnhardt in the public eye. Recounting an episode on 'Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour' Podcast, Gordon narrated an anecdote about dining out at a Japanese steakhouse with Earnhardt, where the late racer challenged him to taste a live shrimp cooked right before them.
"I didn't love it but now it's a story," he reminisced, adding how Earnhardt also had a "vodka and grapefruit juice" ordered for him. Gordon used this incident as a means to communicate a deeper life lesson imparted by Earnhardt.
"It made me look beyond racing and how to enjoy racing, work hard at it, but enjoy the fruits of your labor," Gordon reflected. "After I won the Brickyard [400], he really wanted to win the Brickyard. So, even though he was mad, I think it still was sort of this thing that started bringing us a little closer together.
"My popularity started going up. His popularity was obviously huge. So, the souvenir business was something he was very involved in, very focused on. As he saw my popularity starting to grow, he started talking to me about business.
"I don't know why, but I always go back and like, was there something in it for him? There was with action performance when that went public. But I think he genuinely was like rivalries are good for the sport. There needs to be other personalities that rise in the sport and that's good.
"He thought Rusty Wallace was good. He thought Mark Martin was good, Jeff Gordon and all these other guys. But he wanted to be No. 1 of course. And in 1995, we raced against one another for a championship.
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"And there was a lot of the jabs going back-and-forth in the media. I didn't like him at that time because this guy went from being my hero and someone I respect so much, to now he's trying to get in my head and he's messing with me on the track and off the track. It was a love-hate relationship there for a little while.
"Then towards the five years after that, we're owning property together and we were benefitting from business together. We're talking a lot about the business, even fishing together.
"Where I think he changed for me is he showed me not only the business side, he showed me a different side of the lifestyle. ... I looked up to him and respected him. And at the same time we were rivals, but he knew that I wanted to learn from him."
