"He never gave up on anything" - Dale Earnhardt's pit crew member reveals key to NASCAR Legend's status

Chocolate Myers and Kirk Shelmerdine, members of Dale Earnhardt's legendary pit crew 'The Flying Aces' which bagged the NASCAR pit crew of the year from 1985 to 1988, joined Dale Earnhardt Jr in an episode of Dale Jr. Download, where they spoke about his father.

Dale Earnhardt(Dale Sr.), one of the most prominent drivers in NASCAR history primarily drove the No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing(RCR0 and was also the seven-time Cup Series Champion. In a recent conversation, Dale Jr and the two crew members reminisced about the early years of working with Earnhardt's team in RCR.

Danny Myers, commonly known as Chocolate Myers in the community, was the fueler or the 'gas man' for six of the team's Cup Series Championships. Myers in the podcast revealed one of the key factors that led to Dale Earnhardt's NASCAR legend status. He said:

"He (Earnhardt) never gave up on anything and we went to a lot of races where it was just his desire and determination, all those things that got us to where we were at." (51:18)

Myers then continued by giving an example about a race back in Charlotte where Richard Childress owner of RCR wanted Earnhardt to continue the laps and not lose time on the pit road. However, the latter had different plans.

"We went to Charlotte one year, end of the race probably had a 10th or 12th place. Car(#3 of Dale Sr) comes to the end of the race and Richard(owner of RCR) says "Stay out we'll get the best we can", then Dale Sr. says "Hey I'm coming down(pit road) put me some tires on"," (51:41)

"Here, I think we finished second that day you know he never gave up. It was unbelievable," added Chocolate Myers.

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Chocolate Myers shared a never-back-down instance of Dale Earnhardt from his glory days

Dale Earnhardt was not just a professional stock-car racer who only focused on sitting behind the wheel, but also a "gearhead".

According to the 'The Flying Aces' pit crew member Chocolate Myers, the seven-time Cup Series champion would know how to weld it, fix it, and knew how to build the engine. Myers on the Dale Jr. Download podcast shared an instance of Dale Sr., saying:

"If you wrecked a car or you needed to work on a car, he's(Dale Sr) out of the car and you better stay out of his way because he knows how to fix it. He's right in the middle of it." (0:03)

Myers also added:

"When we crank that thing up after we fix it, it's barely running. It's spitting and sputtering until the lifters got where they would actually go up and down. Richard(owner of RCR) told him(Dale Sr), "Dale, let's just try to finish this thing out"," (0:15)

"And he goes out there once again, running with the leaders and we end up blowing it up again, but probably picked up 10 or 15 spots back then." Myers said.

Earnhardt sadly died in 2001 aged only 49 after succumbing to injuries he suffered in the 2001 Daytona 500 crash. His son also became a NASCAR driver and raced until 2017.