“I’m Gonna Destroy You” – When “Deranged Lunatic” Dale Earnhardt Jr Forced NASCAR Legend to Hide in the Basement

Published 10/06/2022, 11:15 AM EDT

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Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr; the name brings a lot to the NASCAR heritage. Dale Jr had a successful NASCAR career prior to his “semi-retirement” and as a result of all those years, he has a lot to share too.

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Dale Jr began his racing career at the age of 17, in 1991. He retired from full-time racing in 2017. That means a career of 26 years on the speedways. He shared these years with several different drivers.

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On his own YouTube channel, Dale Jr describes a few funny stories that he shared with Clint Bowyer during his time in NASCAR.

The first is a story of when Dale and Clint got ‘sloshed’ while drinking.

He narrated, “I think me and Clint hung out one time down at my saloon one night. We were drinking and got into the sauce pretty good.”

“I took him up to the house and put him in this theatre room for him to sleep because it’s super dark, no windows. I was like man you’ll love it. You might sleep till noon, it’s so dark. He woke up at some point in the morning and I had him locked in. He didn’t know how to get out. He was locked into the basement.”

Dale also narrated, “There was a red flag. We were parked next to each other. I was screaming over at him and yelling obscenities and acting like a deranged lunatic. I was like “Hey man when this race gets back going, I’m just going to destroy this place, I am destroying you and everyone else. Be ready”… I didn’t have to scream but I chose to be more psychotic.

Dale Jr might have stopped racing (full-time) but undoubtedly he will have a huge repository of hilarious incidents like these. These stories show the side of sportsmen that we don’t normally get to know about.

Dale Earnhardt Jr is a big fan of a legend from Timmonsville

Dale Jr had a father for a legend and that brings a lot of perks with it. But his hero in NASCAR wasn’t his father.

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When asked who he would interview if he got a chance, he names Cale Yarborough.

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Yarborough is a NASCAR legend, who was at his peak in the 1970s. He won 3 NASCAR Cup Series consecutively and is still the only one of 2 people to have done so.

Dale Jr explained why he would want to speak to Cale, “I was a big fan of his… I just was always kind of fascinated with Cale. He’s just a like stick of dynamite and really nice guy. But you know backed into a corner and he would come out swinging and he was kind of tough but I would just love to sit down and talk to him and get to know him more.

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Watch This Story: “This Car Will Kill Someone” Fears Grow as Chase Elliott Slams “Backwards” NASCAR After Justin Marks Tussle

A conversation with Cale Yarborough could have brought up some interesting things, like his battle with Dale Jr’s father for the 1980 Cup Series. Let us know what you’d like to ask Cale!

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Written by:

Abhay Tyagi

514Articles

One take at a time

Abhay Tyagi is a Formula 1 Author at EssentiallySports. Although he has completed his undergrad in Law and Management, he has always been eager to venture into the exciting field of sports journalism. With a special affinity for Engineering and Speed, Abhay has always found the world of Formula 1 quite exhilarating.
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Edited by:

Nizamul Haque Bhuyan

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