October 18, 2000

As I was preparing to interview Dale Earnhardt, before his win at Talladega this past week, many things ran through my mind. What was I going to ask him? The usual racing questions related to Talladega was first and foremost.

How do you think the new rules are going to affect the cars this week? If you start in the back again, will you try to go up the middle of the pact again? Do you think NASCAR made the right decisions with these rules changes? Those kind of questions. I don't really care for the standard, stock questions, but it’s information the fans want to know.

I proceeded with the interview and he politely answered each boring question with an equally boring answer. This may be what I came for, but not what I wanted.

Then came the question: How many tracks do you go to during the year that you get to go hunting or fishing while you're in the area?

That question changed the entire tone of the interview and I saw a different Dale Earnhardt.

His reply: "Well, I used to a lot when my buddy was alive. That's changed quite a bit."

I asked him if he was talking about Neil Bonnett and he took a deep breath and let it out with a long sigh and looked me square in the eye. You could see the change on his face when the subject of Bonnett came up. It was as if someone had just turned on the lights and woke him up. He was ready to talk.

He grabbed hold of my shirt and held on as though he was afraid that I wouldn't listen to his story. I had no intention of leaving, but he held on while he talked.

"I miss Neil everyday, but it's especially bad every October and every April when we come to Talladega. He was a unique person and I've got a lot of friends, but Neil was special. I know a lot of people that I enjoy doing things with and I'm doing more and more things with Dale Jr. We've been going pheasant hunting quite a bit. Taylor and I fish a little bit and hunt deer a little bit. We were hunting yesterday. But the relationship that I shared with Neil, It was something that I never had to ask or tell or nothing...I don't know. It was just something between us that I can't explain."

Dale and Neil shared a special bond that even brothers don't always have. The two enjoyed a kindred bond that Earnhardt struggled to explain.

"I've got two brothers and I love them to death but my relationship with Neil Bonnett was totally different than that kind of love. We just didn't even have to communicate. I want, I do or I need or what, it was like we just did it. We just went along and did things knowing what each was going to do, what each other was thinking. It wasn't like ..do you want to go over here or do you want to do this. We went and we did and it came natural to us. It wasn't like we had to ask each other what we were doing or where we were going...we were just going."

Earnhardt and Bonnett used to spend a lot of time together away from the track. One incident that Earnhardt talks about is the time the two bought off road vehicles. Both brand new, right off the showroom floor. Dale talked him into taking both vehicles out to an area that they would do some hunting and along the way, Earnhardt turned his car into Bonnett's, putting a big doughnut on the side of Bonnett's new four by four.

"What did you do that for??," asked Bonnett?"

Earnhardt replied, "Well, I didn't want you to get out here in all this brush and have you worrying about getting it scratched up."

The two had so much in common.

"We enjoyed so much of the same things," said Earnhardt, "Neil and I had a gun built. Two guns built and they were just alike. Kenny Jarrett built them for us. They're big deer rifles and they're made just alike. The guy that made them for us nicknamed them "Sunday Money." Neil’s was "Sunday Money One" and mine was "Sunday Money Two." I also named my boat that. But Neil and I hunted with those guns a lot. We got a lot of deer with those guns."

"When he passed on, I was fortunate enough that Susan (Bonnett) let me get that gun from her. I've got them in a gun case, as a matter of fact, they're on display and they were at Charlotte for the fans to be able to see them. Also with some other guns of mine, but those guns are there side by side and they've got a little note with them of what they are. That's the kind of stuff. We went and did so much."

I asked Dale what Neil was like and could he share just one more story with me and he talks of the time when Neil prepared one of the best meals he had eaten..or so he thought.

He tugged at my shirt again and his eyes were positively aglow, like a kid with a new toy. He probably had told this story many times, but he knew he hadn't told it to me.

"As much as I loved Neil, you'd never let him cook for you," said Earnhardt, "We went down to his farm one time hunting and we came back in and he cooked dinner. It was absolutely awful. If he cooked for you, things were either overdone, or they were hard as a brick. His biskets, you could of killed with them. I could have hit a deer with them and knocked them out. I used to get all over him because the food was always messed up."

"So a couple of weeks later, I was back down there hunting and I said "what do we want to do for dinner tonight"...because I just knew we were going to have to go into town to get something decent. Bonnett said, naw..we're going to eat in the house.

I was thinking..NO..but I didn't say nothing. We got to the house and he had "Prime Rib", baked potatoes, rolls and I mean, they were delicious. He wouldn't let me come in the kitchen. He was in there cooking and eating and I took my shower and we went to eat and that was the best meal that I'd eaten in a long time.

I said, wow, what'd you do, take cooking lessons? He said...no man, I told you I could cook, you just didn't give me much of a chance."

"Later Neil"s son David comes in and said, "How'd the dinner go dad? Everything OK? "

I said, "What do you mean is everything OK?"

David said, "Well mama had it sent down here."

Susan had cooked all that food that afternoon and sent it down there hot." Neil served it up and took credit for cooking it. That scoundrel tried to pull one over on me."

"I miss him a lot."

So do we Dale, so do we.

You can contact Ron at: Insider racing News