Semi-retired NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife, Amy, tied the knot in 2016, but in a recent podcast, Dale Jr. admitted he could have blown his shot at the relationship.
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The former racer reminisced on when he first began dating Amy on Dale Jr. Download, and he admitted that one date made him worry that he had ruined any potential at a real relationship with his now-wife. In the podcast, Dale Jr. explained:
“Me and her, when we first started dating, we had been partying with friends for hours. Everybody went home, and we weren’t tired. And I said, ‘Hey, you know what’d be good?’ Me and her had just started dating, and I said, ‘Have you ever raced?’ You know, ‘I’ve got these go karts, and we can go race.’ I’ve got this small, little, tiny road course track. It’s kind of shaped like a kidney. I was like, ‘It’s right next to this creek, and we just finished it probably a couple months ago.’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go! Let’s go check it out! Let’s go race, I’ll do it.’”
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Operating any motor vehicle is a bad idea, but Dale Jr. also admitted that the race took place in the dead of night with no lights on the track. Under the circumstances, it is probably not surprising that the date did not end well. Dale Jr. revealed that he hit Amy’s car, and she almost crashed into the creek beside the track.
“She went over the berm that was sort of the protective berm to keep people from going into the creek, and the back tire got hung up on the root [of] this tree that was kind of growing out of the side of the bank of the creek. And she’s literally hanging into the creek, and it’s like six [feet] down. It was straight down into this creek, man. And it scared the hell out of me. I jumped up, she’s laughing. I thought I done ruined this relationship right here. She’s going to be so mad that she doesn’t want to see me again.”
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Fortunately, Dale Jr. and Amy stayed together! The couple recently celebrated their fourth anniversary, and they have welcomed two children.
Watch Dale Jr. tell the full story in the video below.