On July 18, 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered from a fiery crash while he was competing in a warm-up session for the American Le Mans Series at Sonoma Raceway, formerly known as Infineon Raceway. Three weeks after the crash, Earnhardt Jr. opened up about it and stated that his late father's spirit helped him get out alive that day.

Earnhardt was driving a yellow Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, which crashed and burned into flames, giving him second-degree burns on his chin, neck, and leg. Describing the incident, Earnhardt Jr. said divine intervention saved him.

"I don't have an explanation for it other than when I got into the infield care centre, I had my PR man by the collar," Earnhardt said in an old video which resurfaced on social media recently. "Screaming at him to find the guy that pulled me out of the car. I was like, 'Find the guy that pull me out of the car.' He was like, 'Nobody helped you get out.'"

After Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to control his car on the S section of the track, he hit the wall and the concrete barrier section. The impact by it ruptured the filler neck and the fuel line, igniting a massive fire. However, Earnhardt managed to escape with burns and injuries.

When the interviewer asked him if it was his dad, he said, "I don't know. You tell me. It freaked me out today just talking about it. You know, he knows everything I'm doing. And that one day, I think you see your loved ones again, you're reunited with them, so that's the way I feel about it," Earnhardt Jr. further added.

As Earnhardt Jr. managed to escape the melting metal car, he was airlifted immediately to the UC Davis Medical Centre in Sacramento. Years after it, he still claims that it was a divine intervention by his late father.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s father, Dale Earnhardt, passed away during the 2001 Daytona 500. He was racing alongside his son on the same day, and while running for the lead, Earnhardt collided with another car and suffered a fatal basilar skull fracture.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shed light on Le Mans incident

Nearly a month after the crash, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about the incident and revealed how he felt while he was trapped inside. With burns still on his body and skin, he said:

"Everything, it just everything was just stinging. I didn't realise, you know, kind of how bad I was burning. At that point, went from 150 degrees to 750 degrees in a second and a half. And then the sensor burned out, and so it was probably a lot hotter than that."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recovered from injury and went on to complete the season. He finished the season in fifth place behind Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason