Dale Earnhardt Jr. pays emotional tribute to late Travis Carter who “shaped NASCAR”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. paid tribute to Travis Carter, who passed on Tuesday (June 10), by commending him for shaping NASCAR. He asserted that Carter, 75, contributed a lot to the stock car racing series as a crew chief and team owner.

Travis Carter notably won the Winston Cup Series championship at 23 as Benny Parsons' crew chief in 1973. He also emerged victorious in the 1975 Daytona 500 with Parsons before teaming up with the late Bobby Allison at Penske Racing (now Team Penske).

Carter won another championship with Cale Yarborough in 1978 while splitting crew chief duties with Tim Brewer. He eventually became a team owner in 1990 and fielded multiple drivers, including Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip, who last drove the #66 Haas-Carter Motorsports Ford in 2000.

Speaking about the passing of the former NASCAR crew chief and team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrote on X:

“Sad news. Travis (Carter) added a lot to NASCAR. It was really nice to get to talk with him in recent months. I'm in awe of the men like him that shaped the NASCAR I grew up in.”

While Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Travis Carter didn't share extensive on-track moments, the two sat down on the Dale Jr. Download podcast last year. They primarily discussed NASCAR back in the day, including moments with Dale Jr.'s father, who tried to persuade Carter to join Richard Childress Racing.

Travis Carter turned down the offer to focus on building his own race team, Travis Carter Motorsports. The team ran for over a decade before Carter left the sport in 2003.

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“He slid a commemorative knife in my pocket”: Travis Carter recalled heartwarming moment with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s father at Daytona

In an episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Travis Carter told Dale Earnhardt Jr. about how great of a guy his father was. Carter recalled receiving a commemorative knife from Dale Sr., which he thought showed the former champ's character.

The late championship-winning NASCAR crew chief said:

“I think he’s just a great guy. Everybody respected him.”

“And I remember at Daytona. The drivers would have to go to this little hospital thing for whatever check-in before the season started,” Carter added. “So he (Earnhardt Sr.) walks from there and he comes brushing by me and I feel something, and he just keeps going, and I reach, and he slid a commemorative knife in my pocket.”

He concluded:

“Just stuff like that he did for people just because he was... either liked him or appreciated them or saying hello or whatever. But that’s part of Dale Earnhardt that people need to know existed.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Sr., and Travis Carter got to share the racetrack as competitors in 2000 when Junior joined the NASCAR Winston Cup Series field as a full-time rookie. Earnhardt Jr. drove for his father's team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI), before signing with Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. He eventually retired a decade later with 26 Cup wins to his name.