Randy Sartin/USA TODAY Sports
TALLADEGA, Ala. — The Dale Earnhardt would have celebrated his 64th birthday last week, a day that didn’t go unnoticed by a friend of the late driver’s son.
Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick gave Dale Earnhardt Jr. a die-cast car autographed by Earnhardt Sr. this week, a gesture that was clearly meaningful.
“He texted me a picture of it and said he was going to give it to me,” Earnhardt said Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, where his father won 10 times. “I don’t know how he got it or when he got it or how long he has had it. But he wanted me to have it and I told him he should probably keep it if he had any connection to it. But he insisted on me having it.”
Surprisingly, Earnhardt said when he started thinking about it, he didn’t have any items with his dad’s signature on it. So Harvick’s gift was the first.
“I thought that was pretty cool,” Earnhardt said. “(Harvick) is just a real good guy. We have a real good friendship, just a pretty good respect for each other. I thought that was a cool thing.”
