Dale Jr. has shared one of the wildest stories about his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., his pet deer named Piston, and NASCAR driver Neil Bonnett. Talking on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, via Dirty Mo Media on X, Earnhardt Jr. shared how Neil Bonnett had an unexpected run-in with Piston, a deer owned by Dale Earnhardt Sr. The social media post was captioned:“One of the most insane stories we’ve heard — Neil Bonnett & Dale Sr.’s deer ‘Piston’ 🦌😅.”According to Earnhardt Jr., Neil was fishing one day when Piston walked up behind him and nudged his leg, wanting to play. He told the deer to go away, but things quickly took a turn. Dale Jr. said:“That deer ran at him, wide ass open, and hit him at the knee, and then took him out, and then jumped on top of him and the deer punctured his chest.”Neil fought back, hitting the deer with a log to escape. He then went straight to Dale Earnhardt’s shop, where Dale Jr. was working. Dale Jr. recalled:“Neil comes in, he’s like where’s your daddy’s rifle? Daddy had like a 270 or 30 or 60 or something right, sitting in the office.”Neil grabbed the rifle and told Earnhardt Jr. to get in the truck. They drove toward the pond where they found Piston standing on a grassy hill. Dale Jr. said:“He said, stop the truck, and he got out, laid the gun across the hood of the truck and shot the deer. And at this point I don’t know why.”When Dale Jr. asked what happened, Neil told him about the attack. He added:“Man, that deer attacked the sh** out of me.”Junior concluded the story by sharing how Dale Earnhardt Sr. came home and learned that his friend had shot his deer. He added that Senior stood there watching but didn’t say a single word.Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Neil Bonnett were close friends and rivals on the track during the 1980s. In 1983, Earnhardt won in Charlotte after a good competition from Bonnett. At the Talladega 500, Bonnett came out on top, beating Earnhardt.After Bonnett’s crash in 1990, Earnhardt helped him get back into racing. Richard Childress hired Bonnett as a test driver for his team, where Earnhardt was the main driver.Bonnett gave feedback on the cars and helped improve their performance. Later, with Earnhardt’s support, Bonnett made a comeback at the 1993 DieHard 500, driving the #31 GM Goodwrench car.Tragically, Bonnett was killed during practice for the 1994 Daytona 500 when his car hit the wall in Turn 4. Seven years later, Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash in the same corner during the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.“I kind of catch myself every once in a while getting into an obsession mode with him” Dale Jr. reflects on his father’s racing legacyNASCAR’s official X account shared a clip from 1995, showing Dale Jr. talking about his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., a year before he started racing. In the interview, Dale Jr. spoke about how much his father meant to him and how focused he was on following in his footsteps. He said:“Yeah, I kind of catch myself every once in a while getting into an obsession mode with him. I don’t know, just thinking about him so much that he’s all I think about, and all I care about is being next to him. If he wasn’t racing tomorrow, you would hope that he’d still be involved with what I was doing and try to help me out as much as he could, making sure I was making the right decisions.”In 1984, Earnhardt Sr. joined Richard Childress Racing and began driving the #3 Chevrolet, winning titles. By the time he retired, he had seven Cup Series championships, tying Richard Petty’s record.During the 1995 season, Earnhardt Sr. finished as runner-up with five wins and 19 top-ten finishes. That same year, Dale Jr. was preparing to follow in his father’s path. He made his Xfinity Series debut in 1996 with Dale Earnhardt Inc., driving the #31 Chevrolet. Later, he switched to the #3 car like his father and went on to win two straight Xfinity championships in 1998 and 1999.