“I’m gonna pay him back”: Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s former confidant reminisces his ‘most famous’ P2 finish with the ‘Intimidator’ 

In a recent Dirty Mo Media interview, NASCAR vet Kenny Wallace recalled a moment when Dale Earnhardt Sr., also known as the 'Intimidator', needed his help mid-race. The instance happened on October 15, 2000, at the Talladega Superspeedway, one of the two notorious plate tracks in NASCAR.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. qualified 20th in his iconic No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevy Monte Carlo, which wasn't the start that he was hoping for. He was looking forward to bagging his 10th win at the 2.66-mile racetrack located in Alabama.

The biggest contenders he had to take on that day were Kenny Wallace and teammate Mike Skinner. With one lap to go, Earnhardt, Wallace, and Skinner were riding the top lane. That is exactly when it happened.

"I remember Jimmy Elledge was my crew chief," Kenny Wallace said in the interview. "He called for two tires. Pit stop went really bad and when I pulled off pit road, I thought I'm the last car on pit road. I looked in my mirror and I (saw) Dale Sr. with those big old bubble goggles."

Although Senior had managed to work his way from P18 to the top-3 with four laps to go, it seemed that even Dale Earnhardt Sr. was struggling to take the lead following the 'bad' pit stop. Therefore, he urged Wallace to help him out.

"My car was fast and man, I got halfway through the field," Wallace recalled. "I was slicing and dicing on my own. Senior gets by me. The man in black was wearing white gloves that day. He put that big old paw up there and he's like 'Help me, Herman!'"

"Dale Sr. gave me my very first NASCAR ride (1988). I'm gonna pay him back. But I didn't think we'd win. Jokingly, it was the most famous second-place finish in history. And I'll brag on it for the rest of my life and here's why. That was the last win of his life," Wallace added.

Dale Earnhardt never won a race after that. It was his 76th Winston Cup victory throughout his 26-year career.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. gave a post-race shoutout to Kenny Wallace

Dale Earnhardt had a lot to celebrate that day. He got his tally at Talladega to two figures, bagged a win in the last plate-track race of the season, and took home the prize money of a million dollars.

None of that would be possible without the last-lap assistance from Kenny Wallace. While Earnhardt's team celebrated in victory lane, the veteran racer spoke to a reporter, saying:

"It was wild. I didn't have any thought that I have a chance of winning this race, starting where I did on that restart. Boy, as we kept working away and got on the outside of Kenny. Kenny Wallace really worked hard with us and he done a good job. I don't think we could have got back up there without Kenny." (via NASCAR Hall)

"I hate to beat Mike Skinner, but I had to beat him for a million. It was a chess game of getting there and staying there and it just worked out for us to be there at the right time," Earnhardt added as he reflected after beating his teammate.

Unfortunately, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was not around for long. Just about four months later, he lost his life to a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500 on 18 February 2001. Thus ended the story of one of the brightest stars in NASCAR.