“I Was Doing That Out of Fear” – When Dale Earnhardt Jr Revealed Heartbreaking Medical Scare as He Goes Back to the Scariest Part of His Career

There is a side of motor racing that the fans rarely get to see. We love and follow the drivers we admire because somewhere, somehow we think of them as being fearless, as heroes. But what makes them true heroes isn’t because they don’t have fear. It is because they do have it, but they still go out and race close to 200 miles an hour, anyway. One such story came from Dale Earnhardt Jr during his 2021 interview with Graham Bensinger.

Every racing driver knows what they’re doing is dangerous and there’s always an element of not knowing which race could be your last. For Dale Jr, this was especially true because his father Dale Earnhardt Sr passed away in one such fatal crash. In the interview, Dale Jr opened up about his time as a racer and what used to scare him the most as a racing driver.

Dale Earnhardt Jr reveals why he used to take notes of his condition after a crash

During the conversation with Bensinger, Dale Jr explained that he used to take notes of his physical condition and what he felt in his head every time he crashed. He went on to explain why he did that when asked by the host.

“How much of why you were taking notes on your iPhone was to leave a trail in case something really bad actually ended up happening,” asked Graham.

“I felt compromised in my head, I felt delicate,” said Dale Jr. “And if I was to have another random, rare high-impact crash, that could injure me severely, so severely that I wouldn’t be able to communicate properly, I wanted there to be some sort of documentation of what had been happening to me. What I have been going through. Whether that would serve any purpose other than just for people to have some knowledge, I guess.”

“But that was a conscious decision you made?” asked Graham.

“I was doing that out of fear, you know. I was writing that down just out of fear.” Dale Jr replied.

“Fear of what?” asked Graham.

“Of what was happening to me,” Dale Jr replied. “I am scared you know. I was having these simple little crashes that were giving me problems. Why? Why am I not able to deal with the crashes that everyone around me can deal with and what I used to be able to deal with.”

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Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001 at the Daytona 500 is perhaps one of the darkest times in the history of NASCAR. There was a time when Dale Jr wanted to give up on racing after the tragic loss of his father.

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Dale Jr Was Lost and Unsure of Himself After He Lost His Father

Dale Jr got into racing because of his father. He was driving for his father and racing in his car. Everything he had worth cherishing was because of his father. So it came as no surprise that losing him was one of the biggest losses of his life. In the 22 years, after the intimidator passed away, Dale Jr has opened up many times about what he felt and how he coped with the loss.

In 2021, in an interview with ‘I Am Athlete’, Dale Jr said, “He knew how to treat people. He knew how to he just did everything right in my eyes. And then I thought, we were gonna do this together, right? And I was racing with for him. I drove his car, he owned my car, I was racing for him, and I was winning. We were celebrating. We got tight, and we weren’t real tight for a long time.”

He also shared his feelings of doubt over himself, “And so, when I lost the man, it was like I thought I was on this path that was gonna be just this linear, smooth ascension to something great. And I thought, now I’m not sure you know what I’m gonna do. I could screw this up, right? I don’t know that I have the wisdom and the ability to do what he did.”

If we look at the flip side, fortunately, no NASCAR driver has died in a crash since the passing of Dale Earnhardt Sr. It goes on to show that the safety of its drivers has been a top priority for NASCAR.

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What do you make of the notes that Dale Earnhardt Jr kept in case the worst came to pass? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.