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“He Actually Hated Me” – Dale Jr Defends His Late Father’s Legacy as He Publicly Trashes Geoff Bodine’s Shocking Accusation
“He Actually Hated Me” – Dale Jr Defends His Late Father’s Legacy as He Publicly Trashes Geoff Bodine’s Shocking Accusation
Rivalries are a big part of NASCAR, but perhaps none were as heated as the one shared by Dale Earnhardt Sr and Geoff Bodine. The two drivers would often collide on the track and wreck each other, forcing NASCAR to take stringent steps. However, many felt that Bodine may have let go of his animosity towards the intimidation. How true is that? Dale Earnhardt Jr strongly refuted that claim in a recent episode of The Dale Jr Download podcast.
Geoff Bodine recently released a book titled ‘All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story’ in which he wrote about his long and illustrious career. The 74-year-old is said to be proud of what he has produced, and as per NASCAR, it may have been written by him, but the book was not for him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr seeks context behind Geoff Bodine’s wild claim
The chapter that intrigued Dale Earnhardt Jr. the most was the one about his father. NASCAR fans know all about the intense rivalry that The Intimidator and Bodine shared on track. Things got so intense between the two of them that they both often went and urged race control to penalize the other. Bodine even claimed earlier that NASCAR’s favoritism towards the 7-time Cup Series champion forced the others to drive aggressively and expect to get away with it.
“He Actually Hated Me” – Dale Jr Defends His Late Father’s Legacy as He Publicly Trashes Geoff Bodine’s Shocking Accusation
But Bodine was quite kind to his fierce rival in the chapter about the legendary driver of the #3. It was just the last line of the chapter that struck a discordant note with Dale Earnhardt Jr. “There’s a chapter on my dad called The Intimidator where he speaks really well of dad. He shares his version of events, but he doesn’t take it too far in his criticism of Dad, and he ends the chapter with comments of how Dad impacted the sport in an incredible way. But the very last sentence of that chapter is, “And I found out after Dale’s death that he actually hated me.” That’s the last sentence of the chapter. I’m like, where’s the context? Who told you that?”
“Maybe I could argue that point. I don’t believe that to be true. Did Dad have an opinion of Geoff? Yes. Did he like everything he did on the race track? No. But after 20 years of not racing each other, I’m sure that he didn’t hate him,” Dale Earnhardt Jr said in what was a passionate rant.
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Of course, it’s difficult for Dale Earnhardt Jr to believe that his father had resentment for Geoff Bodine. After all, the two families used to hang out together by the lake. The 49-year-old recalled those good ol’ days as well when speaking about the two legendary NASCAR racers to drive his point home.
The two NASCAR rivals’ family trips to the lake house
It turns out that before the rivalry and animosity, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Geoff Bodine were close friends. So close that their families would spend a lot of time together. Junior recalled going to the lake house and playing with his sister and Bodine’s kids.
“And Geoff shares some stories earlier in this chapter about how they would come over to the lakehouse, me and Kelley and Geoff’s kids would play together and swim in the late and all that, and dad and Jeff would hang out, have dinners. So I mean, they started off friendly, as most driver-driver relationships do,” the 49-year-old added.
We may never get to know if The Intimidator’s feelings of animosity towards Geoff Bodine subsided towards the end of his life. The two refuting claims are all fans have to base their theories on, but that is part of the intrigue of the sport.
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His debut season in the WEC was strong. Alpine would love to see him in the endurance car next year too. But the racing team will probably have to wait for a commitment from Mick Schumacher .
When asked about his future, Mick Schumacher gives us a deep insight into his inner life. He makes it clear: he is only thinking about Formula 1. And yet his dream of returning could soon be shattered for good.
Mick Schumacher only thinks about Formula 1
The prospects are extremely poor. “Schumi Junior” was considered a hot candidate for a cockpit for 2025. But all the teams that had him on their list ultimately decided otherwise.
Williams brought in Carlos Sainz, but after Logan Sargeant was fired, they preferred to put Franco Colapinto in the car. Alpine is betting on Jack Doohan. The latter is now offering him his place in the endurance rally again. But Schumacher is not wasting any time thinking about that.
Despite all the disappointments and rejections, his love for the premier class remains undiminished. The recent setbacks in the cockpit lottery have not changed that. He is hardly in the running for the last two free places. But he is not thinking about giving up.
Mick Schumacher now gives a deep insight to “Motorsport Total”: “At the moment there is nothing out there that gives me the same feeling as Formula 1.” The chances there are rather slim. But Mick makes it clear: “There is always a possibility. There will always be an open door, hopefully somewhere for me.”
Only when that option is gone will he consider alternatives such as the WEC. “I will start working on a plan B as soon as I know what plan A looks like.” Plan A will always be Formula 1. And Audi has not yet announced Nico Hülkenberg’s team-mate…
Ross Chastain joined Trackhouse Racing over two years ago and brought the team success. He made the playoffs for consecutive years, ending 2022 as the championship runner-up. But for the first time in his career, it seems like Chastain has hit a low. After several unlucky last-lap misses, he entered Darlington 27 points below the cutline. And he failed to cut it, even as his teammate sparkles in the playoffs.
Daniel Suarez scripted his playoff story early this year in Atlanta and lmost won on the same track last weekend. For that, the Mexican speedster got a lot of push from his Trackhouse partner who has now shuffled his priorities in the post-season.
There were several instances this year when the No. 1 Chevy driver threatened Cup Series leaders. But every time Ross Chastain failed, it was painful. At Texas, he battled side-by-side with Chase Elliott until William Byron turned him into the wall with half a lap to go. Then in Nashville, Chastain was leading with just five laps to go when Denny Hamlin passed him and Kyle Larson collected him in a wreck. In both races, Chastain looked to finish second before the late-race chaos cut 60+ points. So, if those chaotic moments had not happened, we would have very well seen the No. 1 car in the playoffs.
However, Ross Chastain is opting to look at things optimistically, although the ambiance is different. His Apple calendar drastically changed as playoff deadlines and obligations were pulled off. Despite the searing pain, Chastain is adapting to the situation. He told Racer recently, “I get notifications whenever stuff gets added or taken off. It was motivation as I just had to watch them ding and pop up, ‘Deleted. Deleted. Deleted.’ So, it was tough. It doesn’t feel good, for sure.”
Winning four races over 2022 and 2023, Ross Chastain had set a standard at Trackhouse Racing. However, 2024 was vastly different – as he bled away over 120 points in the final eight races. Yet Chastain does teammate duties well, as he pushed Daniel Suarez for a second-place result at Atlanta. Suarez thanked his “dancing partner,” stating, “I can’t thank [Chastain] enough because he pushed me very, very good on the restart, all the way in 1 and 2, all the way in 3 and 4. I was timing the second push and once I got the second push, I lost him. I don’t know if he had a flat tire or what happened exactly, but once I lost him, I knew that was game over because that was my dancing partner.”
Mercedes is under pressure at the Formula 1 in Baku after several weeks of mediocre results. The team, which won big in the summer thanks to Red Bull’s weak phase and McLaren’s mistakes, has been unrecognizable since the summer break.
In Baku, the Silver Arrows therefore decided to take a step back and remove the latest underbody. Instead, George Russell and Lewis are driving with the same version that won the Belgian Grand Prix at their last outing.
The first impression of this backward roll on the training day in Baku was quite positive. Lewis Hamilton missed the best time by less than a tenth of a second. He was satisfied with the performance of his car after the second training session in Baku. “It was a very good day. We got off to a good start and made continuous improvements to the setup,” he said happily. Hamilton did not dare to judge whether the good performance was related to the underbody.
This time it didn’t feel like we were falling back into intermediate stages that we had to build up from, but we were able to build up consistently,” added Hamilton. Good starts to a GP weekend are not uncommon for the Silver Arrows.
The biggest hurdle for Mercedes often only became apparent later in the weekend, as the record world champion warned: “We don’t know how much fuel everyone was using and often in the third practice session or in qualifying we didn’t make as big a step as the others.”
In Zandvoort and Monza, for example, the Mercedes W15 was good for best times in training, but had no chance in the race. “So we want to stay cautious and just get the best out of it,” is Hamilton’s cautious goal. However, the two-time winner of the season is not yet expecting a place at the top in qualifying. “I hope we are closer to the front. That’s what it seems like at the moment, but we will only find out tomorrow.”
While Hamilton is looking ahead to the rest of the weekend with hope, George had trouble getting started on Friday. Russell was already dissatisfied with the balance in FP1. The second practice session began 25 minutes late for him after analyses of his drive system after FP1 showed that an engine change was necessary.
Mercedes switched to an old unit and thus avoided a grid penalty for the Baku race. But since its quota had already been fully used up beforehand, a penalty for the rest of the season now seems all the more likely. “At the moment it is unknown what the problem was. All I know is that we had to change the engine. That’s why the start of the session was delayed,” said Russell, sharing his knowledge so far.
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