“I don't ever remember getting cheered like that”: When Dale Earnhardt Jr. braved disastrous Martinsville race to claim his ‘biggest reward’  

The 2006 DirectTV 500 race at the Martinsville Speedway witnessed Dale Earnhardt Jr. make a remarkable comeback after his #8 Chevy was destroyed on the opening lap. His day went from bad to worse as he kicked off his run from 29th place and the hard crash damaged the front-right fender with a big hole in the rear bumper.

Earnhardt Jr. entered the 2006 Cup Series season after a disappointing outcome the previous year, where he failed the title chase and wrapped his season in 19th place. However, the legendary driver opened 2006 on a strong note after posting an eighth-place finish at the season-opener Daytona 500, and a P3 finish in the calendar's fourth race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Seconds after the race went green, a stackup ensued and collected Junior's #8 Chevy. The damage required multiple pit stops to be properly addressed but the crew of Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) didn't let the NASCAR Hall of Famer lose the lead lap, as they did all the repair work under the yellow flag.

As a result, Dale Earnhardt Jr. kept himself in contention for the following 249 laps. However, he suffered another blow to his result, courtesy of Ryan Newman forcing the former into the curb, which plummeted the DEI driver to 18th place.

Despite the unfavorable turnaround, Earnhardt Jr. and his team's unwavering efforts to send the #8 Chevy back on track proved fruitful, with the driver bagging a fourth-place finish, registering his second top 5 of the season.

"That's really the biggest reward out of the whole deal, is when everybody appreciates what you do. I don't ever remember getting cheered like that for anything less than a win, so it's neat that they recognized what we went through to get that top-five. It was loud -- they were chanting, cheering, raising hell," he said after hopping out of his damaged car via GoUpstate.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. collected a solitary win, 10 top-5s, and 17 top-10s, to wrap his 2006 season in 5th place.

"This gonna suck": Dale Earnhardt Jr. recounts his Martinville wreck that made his Chevy a 'turd'

While the crash shattered Earnhardt Jr.'s chances of a promising finish, there was a silver lining to the disappointment. With the right fender gone, the air contacted the Goodyear compound at high speed and thus, the tire temperature didn't rise much, resulting in less wear and more laps.

In an episode of his Dirty Mo Media podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. revisited his 2006 Martinsville race, where he outperformed Kyle Busch, outlining how his Chevy became a "turd" and how the destroyed right fender helped him swerve past the rivals. The 26-time Cup Series race winner said.

"We raced at Martinsville...first lap of the race, I got in a crash. I might have started it, can't remember but it was a big wreck. My immediate thought is, 'I've gotta ride around in this turd, this gonna suck.' We come down to the pit road, we're running over parts underneath the car, get back out on the racetrack and driving my a** off," Junior said.

"We ran and ran and ran and like 20 laps into the run, we're driving by people, like flyin' and drove all the way up to the front and finished fourth. Because I had the fender gone, it kept all the temperature out of the right front tire," he added.

After his 2006 Richmond win, Dale Earnhardt Jr. went the entirety of the 2007 Cup Series season without a single win.