Dale Jr. on His Father's Private Closet: 'Nobody's Been In There Since He Passed'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed that his father and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s closet has been left untouched since he passed away on 18 February 2001 during the Daytona 500. Dale Jr. spoke about the items that are left in there, never opened for 24 years.
Dale Sr. won a staggering seven NASCAR championships in his storied stock car racing career. However, at age 49, he suffered a fatal crash in the last lap of the Daytona 500. The event shocked the world of NASCAR and played a major role in improving the sport's safety standards.
The personal items of Dale Sr. have been left alone in his closet since his passing, only to be spoken about after more than two decades by Dale Jr. on the Dale Jr. Download. He said:
"He had this closet where nobody's been in this closet since the day he passed away. There's a lot of stuff in there. If I could go to a space to take a look at what is physically there, that's absolutely no question where I'd go. There's all kinds of stuff in that room that you know, old racing uniforms and his gun collection, and all types of stuff like that."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks to the media on the red carpet for the NASCAR on Prime Presents The World Premiere of Earnhardt at The Revelry on May 22, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks to the media on the red carpet for the NASCAR on Prime Presents The World Premiere of Earnhardt at The Revelry on May 22, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina.for NASCAR and Prime Video
Adding to the list of things, he said:
"It's old uniforms; mine and Kelley's military uniforms are in this closet. Some of our stuff's in there. I think Kelley stuck some of her old racing uniforms in there as well.
And so it'd be cool to see some of that stuff, it's not pressing, but uh, maybe one day."
Dale Jr. recently spoke about his upcoming show 'Becoming Earnhardt 1980,' which features Dale Sr.'s 1980 NASCAR Cup Series championship battle. Newsweek Sports reported Dale Jr.'s comments on the show. He said:
"It's just a show that I started. I got these two scrapbooks from my aunt when my grandmother passed away. We went to her house, we were kind of looking through some of the things - photos and all kinds of stuff - and there were these two scrapbooks that my aunt made.
"They are literally, one is from the '79 year and one's from the '80 Cup season. She cut out every article and everything. So right there in front of me, man, is basically this kind of book of, like, 'here's what happened to Dad.'
"I just never really dove into that real deeply to get details about that particular couple of years when he drove for Rod Osterlund and landed his first full-time ride in NASCAR.
"So we decided to make a series, Becoming Earnhardt, to detail what's in those scrapbooks and the things that we learned. It's pretty interesting."
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