While most of Nascar used today to bid farewell to the wildly popular Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s full-time Cup racing career, former driver and longtime irritant Jimmy Spencer expressed doubt that Earnhardt Jr.’s career, personality, and corporeal being ever truly existed.
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| The voice of reason |
“There’s no way a driver could come along and succeed like he did in his father’s shadow, even with lots of help from Nascar”, Spencer said, touching upon his claims in 2001 that Earnhardt Jr.’s Summer Daytona win was somehow “rigged” by Nascar. “Its far more likely that Nascar needed someone to assume the mantle of Dale Sr.’s folksy, down-home leadership, and they created Dale Jr. to take that role out of whole cloth.”
Spencer, who is relatively removed from the sport he once competed in, seemed to base his beliefs off of several so-called “coincidences” over Dale Jr.’s career.
“Nascar needed Dale Jr. to succeed, but he didn’t—you know why? Because the actor portraying him at the time wasn’t a professional racer”, Spencer said in reference to Earnhardt Jr.’s mid-career slump after moving to Hendrick Motorsports. “I mean, come on—any REAL racer could’ve won in that 88 car, so why couldn’t Dale Jr.? Its simple—because he wasn’t a real racer, and wasn’t real at all. Just smoke and mirrors.”
Spencer has made controversial statements in the past, most-famously claiming that he wouldn’t welcome Toyota to Nascar since “…these sons-of-bitches bombed Pearl Harbor”, despite having previously raced for German-owned DaimlerChrysler. However, the statements about Dale Jr.’s lack of existence have taken things to a new level.
“My guess is that Dale Jr. was portrayed by a number of actors, out-of-work drivers, and the occasional robot”, Spencer explained. “All those times Dale Jr. refused to talk to me in the 00’s, it was just because his robotic DNA didn’t recognize me—and I never forget such things, I’ll remind you.”
When reached for comment, Dale Earnhardt Jr. confirmed that he was, in fact, in existence and had been so since 1974. He also said he looks forward to spending his retirement as an elder-statesmen of the sport raising his family in comfort and security.