Earnhardt ‘went ballistic’ as DEI member recalls – Sports News
With a nickname like “The Intimidator,” it received’t come as a shock to listen to that seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt Sr wasn’t afraid to make his emotions recognized.
One former Dale Earnhardt Inc. crew member who can attest to that is Kevin Pennell, who just lately appeared on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, the place he recalled a number of memorable exchanges with the racing icon.
Earnhardt Sr. wasted no time in setting the tone with Pennell when he started working within the race store with brother-in-law and Earnhardt Jr.’s former crew chief, Tony Eury Jr,. as an eighth grader. The first time Pennell met the 76-time race winner within the store, the teenager was working beneath a car, at which level he remembered listening to the distinct sound of cowboy boots approaching him.
Having walked over to Pennell, Earnhardt Sr. “grabbed me by my ankles and dragged me out from underneath the car,” he recalled. “And I’ve never seen him in person, never been around him. And the first deal was looking straight up at him and his deal was, ‘Who the hell are you?’
“And I got the kind of the clammy mouth stuttering going, ‘Kevin,’ and he kind of looked down at me…He says, ‘Well, I’m glad to meet you,’ and he started stuttering, going, ‘K, Kevin,’ and that’s how we struck things off was like that.
“And that’s how we struck things off was like that. And then obviously Tony Jr. came back in and we eased the things up a little bit.”
Fast ahead to a late night time on the store when Pennell’s time in high faculty was coming to a close, he discovered himself being teased by co-workers about needing to get home to do his homework. As the dialogue turned to Pennell being warned about “quitting school” or failing, Earnhardt Sr. stepped in.
“Your dad overheard it and went ballistic, from him, like, that ain’t a question that ain’t even a possibility,” Pennell mentioned. Earnhardt Sr. grabbed him by the shoulder of his shirt and advised him, “‘You will graduate or you won’t step on this concrete right here in this facility. You will not work for me.’
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“And it was a deal from him that it hurt him that he didn’t graduate. And he let it be known. And I never experienced that one-on-one right there and took every bit of it.”
Pennell did finish up graduating, at which level Earnhardt Sr. stayed true to his phrase the Monday after commencement. Pennell defined, “He was sitting in his truck waiting on me to pull up. And the promise from him was kept.
“He took me straight into that little house right there on the highway. As you pull in the brick house, that’s where he kept all the office people and pulled right in there and walked in there says, ‘Put him full time.’”
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