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Dale Earnhardt Jr Recalls When a ‘Spirit’ Saved His Life in a Fiery Crash

Published 07/13/2022, 9:45 AM EDT

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Back in 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr was competing in the American Le Mans Series at the Sonoma Raceway. Unfortunately, during the pre-race warm-up, he inexplicably crashed out. Admittedly, it looked like a standard accident, until the car suddenly burst into flames. From this point onwards, things took a bit of a bizarre and possibly a paranormal turn.

When he recalled the accident, Dale Jr. claimed that he felt a pair of arms grab him by the armpit and pull him out. He assumed that it was a marshal, but the only problem was that there was no marshal close enough to attempt a rescue.

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At this, popular theories among fans arose that the spirit of his late father was acting as his guardian angel.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. insisted ‘somebody’ helped him out of the car

Recalling the incident, Dale Jr, said, “When I wrecked in the Corvette in 2004 at Sonoma — it caught fire — somebody pulled me out of that car. And I thought that it was a corner worker because I felt somebody put their hands under my armpits and pull me out of the car.”

“I didn’t get out. I don’t have any memory of myself climbing out of the car. And I remember sort of moving like in motion going to lean forward and try to climb out of the car, and then something grabbed me under the armpits, pulled me up over the door bars and then let go of me.”

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When he reached the hospital, he asked about the person who pulled him out of the car.

Of course, some claimed that Dale Jr did not remember the events clearly. However, he believed that his memory was just fine, and he knew what he felt at the time.

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Unfortunately, we may never know what exactly happened on that day. Some believe that Dale Jr clambered out of the car on his own power, and others believed in divine intervention.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Motorsports author for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh