Then he encourages NASCAR drivers to confess with the hashtag #IWreckedEm
In his final season, Dale Earnhardt Jr is aiming to clear his conscious. After all the excitement of Martinsville, he started thinking about drivers he’s wrecked in the past.
“As soon as you spin somebody out you know that’s big news. There it goes, the media’s talking about it. Everybody’s gunna be asking you about it. You’re gunna have to talk about it all week.”
He clears the air. “I’d be surprised if there’s a driver who hasn’t intentionally wrecked somebody, at some point in their career,” Dale Earnhardt Jr sets up his list.
Dale Earnhardt Jr vs Kerry Lawrence
Myrtle Beach Speedway – 1996
“Here’s the one’s that I could remember after spending about 20 minutes thinking about it. Kerry Lawrence in Myrtle Beach, in 1996. I spun him out off of turn 2.”
“I remember his hood flew way up in the air. Those old fiberglass hoods popped right off. I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I just spun this guy out. He don’t have a lot of money. I just bent his front clip, he’s gunna have to spend $6-8,000 to try and fix his car. I immediately regretted it.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr vs Stanton Barrett
Pikes Peak – 1998
“I spun him out, trying to get a caution because I was needin’ some tires. I ended up going to the NASCAR hauler at the end of that race and fighting with Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart’s crew chief, really. We were running into each other, all day long.”
“While I was at the hauler, getting my butt chewed and fighting with Tony Stewart’s crew chief, Stanton Barrett’s car owner came over then. He’s like, ‘What and the hell did you do that for?’ I don’t know who this guy is because he doesn’t have anything recognizable on him that would say, ‘Hey, I’m the owner of this car.’ ”
“I’m like, ‘what are you talking about man?’ It didn’t dawn on me what he was trying to chew my ass for, until he walked away. I did apologize like 8 years later to Stanton Barrett.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr vs Kasey Kahne
Richmond Raceway – 2004
“I got in the back of him in the middle of the corner. I guess, this would be a case where I didn’t want to spin him out. I was just trying to move him. But, ended up wrecking him.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr vs Bristol
Bristol Motor Speedway 2004
“I spun myself out at Bristol in 2004. I would lump that one into the group. That was an intentional wreck. I went to the back and made sure there was a lot of room between me and the next guy.”
“I had a loose wheel or a flat tire. If you pit, you’re gunna go down 2 laps. I thought if I’d spin out, maybe I’d only loose 1.”
“I got fined because I admitted it. I kinda bragged about it which was stupid.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr vs Kyle Busch
Richmond 2008
“He wrecked me. I don’t think he wrecked me on purpose, he just got in the corner hot and loose. It actually cost him the win in the first race that year.”
“In the 2nd race, I spun him out going into turn 1. I had to get in there hard to get to him.”
NASCAR drivers to confess their sins
“I was thinking about tweeting this list to kickstart some kind of a driver conversation. Maybe where drivers would admit to people that they had wrecked at some point in their career.”
“As a driver, when you get spun out. You never know whether it was on purpose or not. That’s only 5. I bet there’s probably 5 more that I just haven’t thought of.”
Sorry @J_Allgaier #IWreckedEm pic.twitter.com/FgGyETzXsU
— Landon Cassill (@landoncassill) October 31, 2017
The curb @MartinsvilleSwy #IWreckedEm pic.twitter.com/ie87GYmtOO
— Parker Kligerman (@pkligerman) November 1, 2017
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