NASCAR History: Dale Earnhardt Keeps Calling Dale Jr. A “Teddy Bear” Ahead Of 1998 Race Against Each Other

I think the top Youtube comment sums it up best: "Hours later, the teddy bear gets a shoe thrown at him." Last week, I stumbled upon a great story about the time Dale Earnhardt threw a shoe at his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. , after losing an exhibition race to him in Japan. But the footage of them being interviewed prior to hitting the track is some hilarious foreshadowing to everything that went down later... Dale Jr. was asked about having a polar bear on his car as a sponsor (part of the Coca Cola racing family at the time), and his dad kept insisting that he's "a teddy bear," which was a sweet moment between the father and son that we really didn't get to see much of publicly. And when talking about his plans to win the race, his dad was certainly not planning to let him win (not that I ever expected otherwise): "You gotta get by the red car." Jr. laughed at that one, saying he's a pretty good qualifier (implying that he might not have to because he would start ahead and stay there), and Sr. joked that there would be consequences if he did anything too hasty or out of line: "He won't race me too hard. I can dock his pay I can ground him, you know? We'll take care of him." And while Jr. seemed to think that was pretty funny, he also seemed to think it would be worth it (and I guess it was, as we'll come to find out): "It might be worth it on the race track... that asphalt's pretty valuable." Can't argue with that... and Jr. acknowledged that passing his dad on the track would likely be the hardest thing he could "ever try to do" in his life, and I think that's a pretty fair assessment... "Hopefully, I won't have to... that would probably be the hardest thing I eery try to do in my life, to get by him. It don't matter what country you're in." And of course, Sr. had the perfect answer, saying simply; "I've got a wide red car." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaRajbntijQ Yeah, and about that shoe... On his podcast Dale Jr. Download podcast a few years back, Dale Earnhardt Jr. recalled a testy time after he beat his dad in a exhibition race in Japan back in 1999. They had pushed and bumped each other some during the race, but that's something The Intimidator was kind of known for, and Jr. didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. At this time, he would've been around 24 or 25-years-old, and he wound up beating his dad in the race. Let's just say, Sr. didn't take it too well... "Me and dad got into it at Japan one time, at the exhibition race in 1999. So me and him bumped each other little bit on the track, he was really, really, really ticked off. I thought what happened on the track was kind par for the course, and nothing I hadn't seen before. But I didn't know if he was just ready to get out of there, ready to fly back to America, but he wasn't in a good mood." And while they were changing, out of nowhere, Dale Sr. threw a show at his son pretty hard, and Jr. thinks he was definitely trying to hit him, though he had bad aim and wound up barely missing him, hitting the wall instead: "He threw a shoe at me, we were in this little trailer changing clothes after the race. I was super happy 'cuz I beat dad, that was the whole goal of the trip. It went right by my head, though, very close. I was looking down, and it came by at a high rate of speed. It would've hurt if it had hit me. I know his aim ain't that great, so I think his intention was to hit me cuz it came pretty close. If he'd have hit me, then we would've both been pissed. That wouldn't have been good. We didn't really have words, it was just kind like, I'm upset with you." We all know Sr. didn't like losing, but damn... he definitely didn't like losing to his son, or maybe he was just tired? Who knows... You can listen to Jr. talk about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgr4u8QoF5w