Dale Earnhardt Jr. reminisces the time when he was intimidated by Sr. for smoking cigarettes

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently recalled a cigarette incident with his father during a pre-race ceremony at Daytona International Speedway. After getting caught, Dale Sr., nicknamed The Intimidator, blasted him and Steve Crisp, telling the latter to stop encouraging his son.

For context, the incident occurred during the 2001 24 Hours of Daytona, a rare instance where the father-son duo entered as teammates. Steve Crisp was a former Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) team member who ensured the drivers performed their on-track duties.

At the time, Dale Earnhardt Jr. put a cigarette into a helmet's drink plug while joking with Crisp. His father saw it before cussing at them ahead of the endurance race.

Speaking with his former teammates from the Chevrolet-affiliated Rolex 24 team on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, the 26-time NASCAR Cup race winner shared how upset Dale Earnhardt Sr. was when they met up for a photo-op at Daytona.

“We had these cool helmets, and we had this drink hose that plugged into the front,” the former Hendrick Motorsports driver said. (0:01 onwards)

“I was a closet cigarette smoker back then... It was about time to go out to the pit road for the pre-race ceremony, and dad was coming by to get us. I grabbed that helmet and I put it on, I put one of them cigarettes in that little plug for the drink,” he added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. then recounted what The Intimidator told him and Crisp as they headed to pit road.

“Steve Crisp starts snickering, and dad turns around and goes, ‘Don't f**cking encourage him.’ Dad's like, ‘Get your head in the game, you a*****.’ ‘This is serious shit,’” the podcast host added. [0:38]

Junior concluded by saying he was away from the team in one of the pre-race photos by about five feet because his father was mad at him. While the cigarette incident was troubling for the young Earnhardt back then, it has become a funny memory today.

Despite dealing with some tension before the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the #3 C5R Corvette team (Dale Sr., Andy Pilgrim, and Kelly Collins) finished fourth overall and second in its class. It marked the last time the father-son duo raced alongside each other before the infamous Daytona 500 crash happened a few weeks later.

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Earnhardt docuseries director shares how Dale Earnhardt Jr. helped with production

In a recent interview with NBC Sports, Joshua Altman, director of Amazon Prime's Earnhardt docuseries, shared Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s involvement in the project. Altman said the former NASCAR driver would sit down with them for hours to ensure the correct information about his father.

Earnhardt is a four-part docuseries about the legacy of Dale Earnhardt Sr. It provides behind-the-scenes moments from The Intimidator's early racing days to his glorious moments, including winning seven NASCAR Cup Series championships.

Joshua Altman told NBC Sports:

“We would sit down with Dale for four hours at a time. So he was just giving us both his perspective on things, but also helping us understand, coming in as newbies, like, ‘No, that’s not what happened. This is what happened'.”

The Earnhardts during the 1990 Atlanta Journal 500 - Source: Getty

All four episodes of Earnhardt are now out on Prime Video. Interested individuals without a subscription can take advantage of the free 30-day trial to watch the docuseries and other shows.