The Strange Reason Why Richard Childress Racing Were Relieved when an Injured Dale Earnhardt Got Substituted

During the 1996 Die Hard 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway, Dale Earnhardt was involved in a major accident. Owing to that, he fractured his left collarbone and sternum. This also meant that his participation was in doubt for the upcoming race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. However, the good news was that Dale Sr. had some tricks that he could use on the skin to deal with the pain.

Of course, Richard Childress Racing was not about to take any chances. So they roped in Mike Skinner to be on standby in case Dale Earnhardt couldn’t recover in time. Skinner even hopped into the car for practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This was also because Skinner was at the Indianapolis Raceway Park for the Truck Series race. However, The Intimidator was back in the car for later sessions and even qualified in 12th place.

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What happened to Dale Earnhardt later on that weekend?

Since RCR needed points, they needed to run the majority of the race. When the first caution came out, Dale Earnhardt wasted no time in diving into the pits. As he made the swap, he said, “Tell Skinner he’s going to have a fine ride”. Needless to say, the team was relieved that Dale Sr. was not stubborn in getting out of the car.

This was because he was up all night, before the race, watching Clint Eastwood movies. He was doing this in order to hype himself up so that he could tough it out through the entire race. In the end, though, he opted to stick to the plan and let Skinner complete the race in his stead. To his credit, Mike Skinner brought home the car in 15th place, which was fairly respectable. It is worth mentioning that they shortened the race due to rain delays and fading light.

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Even though Earnhardt Sr. readily gave up his seat that day, he was visibly upset. It killed him from the inside that he couldn’t drive the car any further in that race. This incident just reiterates the passion Dale Earnhardt had for driving and winning.