NASCAR Cup Series

Dale Earnhardt Jr. dishes on flipping Chevy S10: 'Keep your eyes on the road'

Published Sep. 5, 2014 7:14 p.m. ET

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. will have Nationwide Insurance on his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the first time this weekend, however their relationship goes way back.

As a team owner, Earnhardt has fielded cars in the Nationwide Series and is glad to see Nationwide continue in the sport as a primary sponsor on his Sprint Cup Series ride. Plus, as the commercials have made clear, the Earnhardt family has used Nationwide for years.

"I've been working with Nationwide for a really long time, and it is a genuine relationship," Earnhardt said Friday at Richmond International Raceway. "They've been insuring the vehicles I drove since I've had my driver's license."

Dale Jr. learned the hard way how Nationwide handles claims when he flipped the 1991 Chevrolet S10 extended cab truck he owned for only three months.

"I financed it for five years for a $100 payment," he said. "I had it for about three months, and I flipped it on Christmas morning driving to MeMaw's for a family reunion. There was a little snow off the road, but not on the road. But I'd gotten a Walkman CD player from my sister with a tape adaptor, and I was messing with that, and drove it off the road, and hit a driveway culvert, and flipped over like six or seven times. It totaled the truck.

"Some people drove by, helped me out. I called Dad on their cell phone. He was at MeMaw's. I said 'I flipped my truck and I need you to come get me.' I wasn't but about four miles from the farm on Highway 3 so he drove to the farm, got the rollback, and when he got there, the state patrolman got there as well. Me and Dad loaded the truck up, and the patrolman said, 'If y'all are good, I'm good.' So we just took the truck home. And that was that. I got some pretty good insurance (payment) on it, and got myself another truck. I don't think anything survived the wreck. Luckily I didn't get hurt; it was a pretty nasty spill."

Afterward, Dale Jr. had some simple advice for other drivers: "Keep your eyes on the road."

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