Last week, a fan poll determined what the broadcasters would wear. Jeans and a vintage racing t-shirt won, hand’s down – so Dale Earnhardt Jr. donned a Dick Trickle shirt that he received just one week prior on the Dale Jr. Download.
“I went through all the shirts I had and I wanted one that people would be like, ‘dang. All right. That’s what’s up.’ And everybody misses Dick Trickle, wishes he was still around – the stories he could tell,” Dale Earnhardt Jr said.
The reasoning behind picking at Trickle t-shirt was personal.
“I knew Dick Trickle pretty well. When he drove for Cale Yarborough Racing, Cale’s crew chief Doug Williams, his son – me and Scott were great friends, so I was up in that hauler all the time – and he would walk up in the hauler with his briefcase. He had an old, square box briefcase and he’d open it up and it had cigarettes and Reese’s cups in it.
“When you’re a little kid hanging around the sport back then, these were rough men and they didn’t give a damn who’s kid you were. If you was in the way, they were going to tell you to get the hell out of the way. Go be where you’re supposed to be. … Dick Trickle never once said anything about us being in the lounge .. or his hauler. He’d sit down and have a conversation with you.”
For more, watch the video above.