"Aliens took me up in a spaceship and straightened me" - When Dale Earnhardt joked about his racing turnaround after health scare

The late Dale Earnhardt endured a few setbacks during the course of his racing career despite being one of NASCAR's all-time greatest drivers. One of those setbacks came in 1997 when the seven-time Cup Series champion suffered a mid-race health scare, leading him to crash his #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet into the wall.

In the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Earnhardt mysterious blacked out behind the wheel of his race car, resulting in the crash. However, the 76-time Cup Series winner was back in action the next week and even finished the rest of the season. In the four races following the incident, Earnhardt posted finishes of 15th, eighth, and two runner-ups, respectively.

While there was never a diagnosis made by a doctor for what caused the sudden medical situation, Earnhardt had quite the theory for what triggered his season turnaround. He shared his thoughts with reporter Rick Houston after the Martinsville Speedway race, where he secured the second of his back-to-back runner-up finishes.

"The aliens picked me up in Darlington, took me up in a spaceship and straightened me out," Earnhardt said. "I've run better, ain't I?"

Houston, who now hosts, The Scene Vault Podcast, which focuses on NASCAR's history, recently posted a photo of an old newspaper article that included Earnhardt's humorous line after the Martinsville event. He wrote:

"Dale said it ... and I wrote it. October 2, 1987 Winston Cup Scene"

While he wrote 1987 in his original X post, Houston later commented and corrected himself, confirming the article was from 1997.

Earnhardt went on to finish fifth in the final standings in 1997, but failed to win a race. However, Earnhardt snapped the winless drought when he started the 1998 season by winning the Daytona 500 in his 20th attempt of trying to win the sport's most prestigious race. Earnhardt went on to win three races in 1999 and two in 2000. He also finished as the runner-up in the overall standings in 2000. Unfortunately, Earnhardt's legendary career was tragically cut short in the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 when he was killed in a crash.

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Dale Earnhardt once described his 1995 Atlanta win as an "a** kicking"

Dale Earnhardt's alien theory is far from his only memorable post-race quote. Another memorable moment came at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1995 after Earnhardt scored a dominant victory.

Earnhardt, who led 268 of the race's 328 laps on that November day, was seen in victory lane with a trophy in one hand. As he approached someone watching the celebration, Earnhardt told them:

"That's what you call an a** kicking," Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., went on to become one of NASCAR's most prolific drivers in his own right. The younger Earnhardt won 26 Cup Series races, including two Daytona 500s, and was the sport's most popular driver for 15 straight seasons (2003-2017). He retired from full-time competiton after 2017.