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| THE ONLY PICTURE I HAVE OF DALE (PHOTO PROVIDED BY DARLINGTON RACEWAY) |
I walked right up and asked Dale about his dreams as a driver. I was green and didn't know that no driver (much less Earnhardt) would talk before qualifying. Earnhardt said he couldn't think about it right then, and he learned up against the hauler and turned his head away.
He looked back at me and realized I was shocked, so he reached down, put his hand on my shoulder and said we'd talk about it some other time.
Dale didn't qualify that day at North Carolina Motor Speedway (Rockingham), so he and several other drivers had to requalify the next day (probably Friday). Earnhardt put up a good time, and he went into the media center to see how everyone else was doing.
He saw me and had this little-boy look, like he'd been caught at something. But we didn't say anything to each other.
It turns out he topped requalifying that day, with Mark Martin second. I believe Dale won a small bet with Mark.
I didn't get to talk to Earnhardt that weekend; that came the next year at Talladega, and that's a whole different story.
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