Recently, former NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr regaled a story about himself and his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr. As it turns out, he once angered his father to the point that the latter threw a shoe at him. One time, the two of them were competing against each other and it was fierce.

With 10 laps to go, Dale Sr had a set of tires waiting for him. However, the same could not be said for Dale Jr.

Since the father had no intention to pit, Dale Jr’s team decided to pit and ‘borrow’ the tires. So, when the son pitted, he emerged a couple of spots behind his dad.

What happened next between Dale Earnhardt Jr and his father?

According to Dale Earnhardt Jr, “We come off Turn 4 and Dad’s on my right rear. I’m passing him and thinking, ‘surely, I got to get the throttle down, but I can’t, because he’s right here. He’s got to let me go. We’re both going to go down the straight, slow as hell’.

“So I just gassed it and come up the track and slid over his headlights up onto the grille of his car.”

The elder Earnhardt relented and allowed his son to pass. In the end, a delighted Dale Jr finished in sixth place and even finished ahead of his father. Later on, Dale Jr went back to his and his father’s trailer to get changed. As he changed, Dale Sr entered and sat down to take his shoes off.

Suspecting nothing, the son bent down to lace up his own shoes. Not a moment too soon, as he very nearly got brained by a flying shoe, courtesy of his father. No words exchanged between them, and there was nothing but awkward silence around. Just then, Dale Earnhardt Jr was saved by the bell, when a crew member told him that there was someone waiting to interview him.

Needless to say, the younger man couldn’t escape the trailer fast enough. Taking away from that incident, the son figured that once his father calmed down, he probably would have been proud of him.