Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of the most popular figures in NASCAR, but even he can be humbled every once in a while. A lot of times, this happens anonymously over social media, but this was a bit different.
Earnhardt discussed his vacation on The Dale Jr. Download podcast with co-host Mike Davis. He told a hilarious story about someone at the all-inclusive resort he and his wife stayed at. This guy said one thing to him, and it wasn’t, “I’m a big fan of yours.”
Jimmie who? Nope, never heard of him. @DaleJr had @MikeDavis88 in stitches with this story about an interaction with a @JimmieJohnson "fan."
FULL CLIP: https://t.co/PHvyWfWD3n pic.twitter.com/ARc8yx38VR
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) March 21, 2023
“We’re sitting there in the hot tub, and it’s kind of a large hot tub, so multiple people can get in,” Earnhardt said. “We’re down on one end of it, me and Amy and another couple, and this other group was in the hot tub. A couple guys and some girls that were in there when we walked up, and one of the girls said, ‘Hey, my son is a big fan of yours.’ And I was like, ‘Man, that’s nice, tell him I said hey.’
“We had a very brief, but nice interaction. Great people. One of their, crew, this fella comes wandering up and he’s been over at the tiki bar and they’re like, ’Where you been?’ He’s like, ‘I’ve been over here meeting all kinds of people.’ And he figures out who I am in the moment, walks right up to me and goes, first thing he says, only thing he says, ‘Jimmie Johnson won a lot more races than you, didn’t he?’”
I mean…yeah, that’s accurate. Johnson has 83 wins, while Earnhardt has 26. And Johnson has seven Cup championships. That’s pretty much what Earnhardt said in response to the guy. Earnhardt said, “He’s a seven-time champion!”
As humbling as it was, Earnhardt did the right thing by not saying anything that escalates the situation. The guy was at the bar, so chances are he was drinking. In that situation, especially given Earnhardt has a level of notoriety, someone needed to be the bigger man. Otherwise, as Earnhardt and Davis discussed, everyone will have their phones out, and this snowballs into a TMZ story.
Instead, it’s an amusing anecdote that everyone can get a laugh out of.
