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How Dale Earnhardt Jr. helped Jeff Gordon avoid speeding ticket

The Earnhardt name carries a lot of weight and no one knows that more than Jeff Gordon.

The four-time Cup champion was a guest on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s podcast on Tuesday and during a Q&A session held on YouTube, Gordon was asked about a run-in with a police officer and Earnhardt being on the Gordon’s phone at the right time.

The incident took place in 2007, very close to when Earnhardt was officially announced as joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.

Here’s how Gordon remembers the story:

“Maybe it was the day before it was official, but Rick (Hendrick) told me. ... So I was driving to dinner and I (thought), ‘I’m going to call him.’ I didn’t have the hands free setup in the car so I just called him. I’m driving along, on the phone, we’re talking and I’m congratulating you and welcoming you to the team. ... All of a sudden I’ve got blue lights in my rear window. I’m like, ‘Uh oh, I’m getting pulled over.’ I wasn’t sure if I should stay on the phone with Dale or not. But I said, ‘No, no. Stay on here, I may need you.’

“Luckily I did, because first the guy says to me, ‘You know you’re not supposed to be on your cell phone?’ Then second, ‘You know you were speeding?’ Then I just said, and I never do this, but I said this is the moment where I got to pull this off. I said, ‘I know and I’m sorry. You don’t happen to be a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, are you?’

“He said, ‘Yeah, why? What does that have to do with anything?’ I said, ‘I’ve got him on the phone, I was congratulating him on something.’ He goes, ‘What?’ and I just handed him the phone off and you spoke to him for just two seconds and got me out of it!”

Said Earnhardt, “I was just trying to make a great impression with my new teammate.”

“He made the greatest impression on me!” said Gordon.

Watch the above video for the full Q&A session with Gordon.

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