Dale Earnhardt Once Fired Off A Shot From His Hunting Bow At A DEI Employee Who Was Mouthing Off: “Took Off Running Across The Parking Lot”

You just didn’t mess with Dale Earnhardt.

During the Ask Jr. segment of his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was of course asked about the WILD story Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn told about how his dad threw Kix off of a fishing boat int he middle of the ocean into chummy water and then sailed away, and he was as baffled by it as I think all of us were hearing it.

You can read more about that HERE, but hearing about this incident led Jr. to tell another story about his dad that I had never heard before, which involved a young tire changer who had been hired at DEI, Dale’s race team, and was working his way up the ranks. Starting out with one of his Xfinity teams, Scott eventually made his way to Dale’s Cup team and Jr. says they got a lot better on pit road because of him.

But because he was so young and green, he was a little bit cocky, and Jr. called him a “smart***” who wasn’t afraid to say crazy things to Dale or some of the other older veterans who worked there… and one time, Dale Sr. was out in the parking lot at DEI practicing some shots with his bow, when Scott walked over and said something to him… some sort of out of pocket joke, I’m sure, because Scott started running across the parking lot.

and as soon as he took off, Sr. fired an arrow right over his head, not without warning, though I’m not sure that makes it any better:

“I remember one time, there was an individual that was the tire changer. He was a very good tire changer. Dad’s team had just hired him to change tires on the Xfinity car, this was in the early 90’s. and his nickname was Yankee, Scott was his name. Awesome guy. And he would eventually become a tire changer on the Cup car.

But I remember his path to becoming the changer on the Xfinity car, earning everybody’s respect, getting called up like a major league baseball guy to the Cup team and how big of a deal that was and how much better dad’s team got in Pit road because of it. But when he first came, he was really a smart***, young guy, around Tony Sr., dad, all these gruff old veterans that knew everything. And he come in there running his mouth, being a smart***.

And I remember, I don’t know how this happened, but dad was in the parking lot shooting his bow and arrow, it was a compound bow for deer hunting. and at some point, Scott showed up and he’s being his smart*** self and said something, and dad’s like, whatever dad said or did, Scott turned and took off running across the parking lot. And dad fired an arrow about eight foot over his head, and dad told him he was gonna shoot at him. The details are sketchy, a little fuzzy.”

If we could only know what was said… sounds like Scott was pretty fearless when it came to The Intimidator, unlike pretty much everyone else.

Jr. also recalled another wild story about Dale Sr.’s longtime carpenter and DEI employee, Todd:

“And then, there was another time where there was a guy, a carpenter, his name was Todd. And Todd’s an amazing carpenter, longtime employee at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, and dad loved him. And Todd built dad’s log cabin single-handedly. I went in there and helped him a little bit with some stuff in some of the closets and did a little work, but that guy was down there every day building that thing on his own. He eventually would end up getting a woodworking shop in DEI, and he was a main figure and dad leaned on him.

He’s still around, I still talk to him. He loved Ford’s, dad didn’t love Ford’s, we were Chevy people. But Todd wanted to street stock race, he had raced some street stock stuff in his past and just coincidentally, me and Kerry are building a street stock, and so out at the deer head shop, that was really the only thing around the property back then. We would get our street stocks out of the barn, Todd had a Ford Thunderbird, big box ’83 or ’84.”

Jr. says they would have to wait until 5 o’clock to go out there and work when the DEI guys were done with their workday, which at the time, took place at the deer head shop on Dale’s property in Mooresville, before they built the much bigger DEI office that was also known as Garage Mahal (what a great name, by the way):

“And me and Kerry had a little Monte Carlo. We’d start working on them, we’re getting them ready. We’re building them, we’re not racing them yet. Todd is in his car tacking in the firewall for the back, so big old sheet of tin, he’s tacking it into this car covering up all the holes in the back of the car.

He’s in the interior, and dad had been out on his farm, and he walked around with a 6-shooter on his hip, so he had a pistol on his hip at all times when he was out on his farm. It’s probably 5 o’clock, everybody’s starting to converge on the deer head shop, there’s gonna be beer drinking and eating pizza and bullsh******.

About that time, Dale walked by with his pistol and shot a hole right through it… and Todd would later race with a bullet hole in his quarter panel:

“Dad walks by, pulls his gun, shoots a hole through the quarter panel of this Ford. The bullet goes through the quarter panel and through the fuel cell, and it scares the s*** out of all of us. And dad says, you’ve gotta get a racing fuel cell.

He’s like, it’s dangerous to run this stock fuel cell, and I’ve now fired a hole in it, so you can’t use it. I want you to put a good fuel cell in these cars so you guys don’t get burned up, you know. Safety first. It was loud. Just shot a hole right through the quarter panel, and so Todd raced that car with a bullet hole in the quarter panel. It was awesome.”

Honestly, that’s pretty bad***. It’s like wearing a badge of honor I feel like, and imagine getting to tell that story to someone at the track. Just classic.

You can watch Jr. tell those stories here:

The post Dale Earnhardt Once Fired Off A Shot From His Hunting Bow At A DEI Employee Who Was Mouthing Off: “Took Off Running Across The Parking Lot” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.