Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Was Once Pulled Out Of A Fiery Wreck… But No One Was Really There: “I Swear Somebody Was Carrying Me Out”

His daddy was looking out for him.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an incredible moment back in 2004 when he was involved in a fiery crash during a warm-up session for an American Le Mans Series (ALMS) race at Sonoma Raceway.

His Corvette spun, hit the wall and ultimately caught fire when fuel started spilling out, which quickly engulfed his car in flames and led to a very scary moment on the track.

And during an interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes not long after it happened, Jr. recalled how badly he really got burned and just how hot it was inside the car:

“Lost the back of the car right there, and you see just gas flying everywhere. Yeah, it was bad. I mean, you see the flames reaching up into the air, 30-40 feet. But it was really, really hot.

My legs are blistered up, but my face, my chin, everything was just stinging. I didn’t realize, you know, kind of how bad I was burning at that point. it went from 150 to 750 degrees in a second and a half.and then the sensor burned out, so it was probably a lot hotter than that.”

Wallace asked whether or not Jr. thought that might be where it all ends, and he said it definitely crossed his mind, as it would anyone else’s in that situation, I’m sure:

“Yeah, I mean, that crosses your mind. You think I could die here. You know, this could be how I go.”

Wallace then of course asked the obvious question in terms of whether or not Jr.’s dad, the late, great Dale Earnhardt had anything to do with him getting out and living to tell the tale.

Earnhardt had passed away just around three years prior to this wreck in a wreck of his own at Daytona International Speedway, and when you see the video of Jr. getting out of the car, it’s pretty amazing and almost impossible to deny there was someone there in spirit watching over him at the very least, but maybe even helping him physically get out of the vehicle.

Jr’ said he didn’t believe his dad had “a lot to do with me getting out of that car.” In fact, he recalled telling his PR guy at the infield care center right after it happened to go find the guy that pulled him out of the car… but no one at the track had physically actually helped Jr. get out. He got out on his own from what we could all see at the time, and in the film footage looking back:

“I think he had a lot to do with me getting out of that car. I didn’t have an explanation for it other than, when I got into the infield care center, I had my PR man by the collar, screaming at him to find the guy that pulled me out of the car.

He was like, ‘Nobody helped you get out.’ And I was like, ‘That’s strange, because I swear somebody had me underneath my arms and was carrying me out of the car. I mean, I swear to God.'”

Wallace responded that it had to be Jr.’s dad, and Jr. explained that it still freaked him out “to this day”:

“I don’t know, you tell me. It freaks me out today just talking about it.”

The video will give you chills, and you can watch it in the Instagram reel below.

It really looks like someone is pulling Jr. out, because of the way he glides out of the car head and shoulders first. You don’t really see his arms touch the top of the window or his feet hit the ground first. It’s really impossible to explain by the standards of the natural, especially considering Jr. himself literally thoguht someone workng at the track had come to his rescue and he felt someone pull him out.

See what you think for yourself:

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I personally have no doubt it was either Dale Earnhardt or Jesus himself that pulled Jr. out of that car, but either way, there’s no denying it was a miracle that he walked away from this fiery crash:

Part of the full 60 Minutes interview is available here:

The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Was Once Pulled Out Of A Fiery Wreck… But No One Was Really There: “I Swear Somebody Was Carrying Me Out” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.