“Did he laugh?” - Dale Earnhardt Jr. recalls story of watching Talladega Nights with Star Wars creator George Lucas

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared an interaction he had with Will Ferrell, the actor-comedian who was the star of the 2006 movie Talladega Nights. Recently on the Rich Eisen Show, Junior revealed where he saw the movie for the first time, the big name he saw it with, and what Ferrell was later curious about upon hearing it.

Earnhardt was recently in New York to promote NASCAR's and his own forthcoming partnership with Prime. This prompted the interviewer to ask if he saw any big names while he was in the Big Apple. The former NASCAR driver answered that he saw Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell.

He revealed how he got to work with Ferrell and shared the time when he saw Talladega Nights for the first time.

During a race weekend in Sonoma, Earnhardt was approached to watch Talladega Nights, which hadn't released at that time, to which he agreed. But what he didn't know was where the screening was going to be.

"They took us to Skywalker Ranch, which was great. We were in Skywalker Ranch walking around, George Lucas, all that cool stuff. We sit down to watch it in one of those film rooms and George Lucas walks in, sits down and watches the whole movie. And Will Ferrell said, 'But did he laugh?' I said, 'Yeah, he laughed. We all laughed.' It was a great movie," Earnhardt described. [1:55]

The NASCAR Hall of Famer claimed he was just thrilled to see the movie while being unaware that he'd be watching it along with George Lucas.

Earnhardt further revealed that it took him all these years to tell Will Ferrell this story, as Rich Eisen wondered if he hadn't told him this all along this time, to which Junior claimed he only told him "today".

He added that Ferrell was glad Lucas laughed.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. may have watched a movie with George Lucas, but Ryan Blaney is the ultimate Star Wars fan

While Dale Earnhardt Jr. may or may not be a Star Wars fan, the one driver from NASCAR who is a huge fan of Star Wars is the defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney. In a 2021 interview with the New York Times, Blaney rated himself on a 1-10 scale as a Star Wars fan.

"Probably a 7-8 on the 'Star Wars' fandom scale. I’m not a 100 percent 10-out-of-10 nerding out on “Star Wars,” seeing everything, I have every action figure. I used to have a decent amount of 'Star Wars' stuff in my house and then I got a girlfriend and she’s like, 'This is not staying out in the house, you can have this one out.' That’s changed it a little bit," Blaney said.

He added that he's a big fan and enjoys watching all the movies, mentioning how he considers himself "really fortunate" to be able to go to one of the premieres of 'The Last Jedi'.