Dale Earnhardt Jr's dad once kicked his friends out of house to give life-changing lesson
Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared a story on how his father kicked out his friends in order to provide him the boost he needed in his career.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared a story about his father that taught him a valuable lesson regarding his career.
With the release of the 'Earnhardt' series on Amazon Prime Video, more about the life of the NASCAR legend has come to life, with Earnhardt Jr. sharing more about his father's life. Aside from the series, Earnhardt Jr. shared how his relationship with his father changed once the elder Earnhardt realized his son was a prodigious driver.
In a recently released clip promoting the Amazon series, Earnhardt Jr. shared a story of how his father gave him tough love at the expense of his friends. Despite the tough lesson, the NASCAR legend explained how it ultimately helped him out in the long run.
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"All of a sudden, the door flies open on this double-wide trailer I lived in," Earnhardt Jr. began. "Boom, boom. I know immediately those are dad's footsteps.
"He looks over at my buddies that are sitting over there and he goes, get the f--- off my property. Them motherfuckers ran out of the house and jumped in the cars and they drove out to driveway. The shoes are still sitting in the floor."
The 50-year-old added: "And he said, 'Come here.' And we walked out. I thought he was going to whoop my a--. And he goes, 'Man, what are you doing?'I was like, 'I thought my racing career was over.' He's like, 'No, they're going to fix that car. That's where you should be. You should be wanting to fix your car.'"
Earnhardt Jr. continued to say that his father's questioning where the younger driver's motivation was ultimately helped fuel his drive to become great. "'Where is that? Where is that inside of you? What's missing in you that you thought to come over here and sit on your a-- and feel sorry for yourself?'
"That was the one father-son talk that we had that sunk in." In the end, Earnhardt Jr. amassed 26 total NASCAR Cup Series wins, including winning the Daytona 500 twice, becoming one of 12 drivers to have accomplished the rare feat.
Along with the strong heart-to-heart, Earnhardt Jr. also explained how once his father found his son had skill behind the wheel, their relationship changed.
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"So he is thinking, 'Damn! This little ---- can drive a car!' And that's when our relationship completely changed," Earnhardt Jr. shared with Joe Rogan. "That's when [he] had his arm around me, we were doing ---- together, we had sponsor deals and promotions together. We were doing photo shoots together.
"I saw him all the time, and we talked about all kinds of [things]. We talked about life, girls, everything but racing. We didn't talk about racing much, which is fine. And it was awesome."
Earnhardt Jr. added that his father did not watch his races early on in his career. "I was running Late Models for four years never seeing him," Dale Jr. said at his news conference at Pocono Raceway.
"I don't think he ever saw me race Late Models in the mid-90s. Then we got in the Xfinity Series. I had two years of that and one year of Cup, and he was gone."
