"It's good to see the kid running good" - When Dale Earnhardt reflected on his experiences racing alongside son Dale Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. once talked about racing alongside his son in NASCAR. The Intimidator said it was fun seeing Earnhardt Jr. “running good” in his start-up team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI), paired with another young driver, Steve Park.

Earnhardt Sr. was an American professional racecar driver who won seven Cup Series championships, the most in the sport’s history. He was driving for Richard Childress Racing when his son came to the stock car racing league under his own team in the late 90s.

When asked about racing alongside his son, Earnhardt Sr. said:

“It’s fun having your kid out there racing too.”

He added:

“It is good to see your kid running good and racing with him. Matter of fact, he’s just a couple cars behind me. He’s making his move back to the front. So I got to adjust and go faster too.”

Aside from his son, the seven-time NASCAR champ also looked after Earnhardt Jr.’s teammate Steve Park. In the same interview, he was asked whether his young drivers had a curfew.

“I’ll have to watch Park as much as I do Dale Jr. Both of them are… they like to enjoy their stuff and go out,” Earnhardt Sr. said. “They’re pretty good guys. They get in early on race night and get ready.”

The father-son duo shared their final race on the track at the Daytona 500 in 2001. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was running behind his son when his No. 8 Chevrolet crashed into a wall on the final lap. The fatal crash took his life at the age of 49.

Later in the same year, Earnhardt Jr. won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. He celebrated the victory with Darrell Waltrip, who finished 1-2 with him in the race his father passed.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved from his father’s team to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. After the 2017 season, he retired but continued racing as a part-time driver with his NASCAR Xfinity Series team, JR Motorsports.

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Dale Earnhardt Sr. once crossed the finish line to beat his son by 0.007

One of the most notable racing moments Dale Earnhardt Sr. had with his son was at the International Race of Champions’s (IROC) Michigan stop in 1999. The father-son duo had a photo finish, with The Intimidator ahead in P1 by 0.007 over his son in P2.

NASCAR on NBC posted the moment on X (formerly Twitter) last August.

When Earnhardt Jr. was interviewed by The Durango Herald in 2017, the now 49-year-old driver said he was proud of the moment considering his father was the best at the time.

“It seemed like only me and him were racing each other for the win. I was very proud of that because I thought he was the best in the sport at the time. It was like beating Jimmie Johnson if he came down to the Xfinity Series. So, that was a big deal for us,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

Earnhardt Sr. secured the championship in the 1999 IROC season after winning three of the four races. His son finished 9th in the standings.