From NASCAR Hall of Fame member Rusty Wallace: “(Dale) Earnhardt and I were at North Wilkesboro and we were talking about merchandise sales. Because he had just started Chase Authentics. He said, ‘There’s just got to be controversy out here, you know?’
“And so we were telling Mr. France (then-NASCAR President Bill France Jr.) He was there for the drivers’ meeting. He said, ‘What are you guys talking about?’ I said, ‘We were talking about how important controversies are for selling merchandise.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah. Gotta have something going on all the time. Somebody’s gotta be roughing somebody up.’
“And in the race, Earnhardt gets behind me in Turn 2 and I get loose and he starts hitting me. And I get mad and I just brake-checked him. I’ve never brake-checked anyone in my entire life, but I jammed on the brakes. I jammed his nose right up my rear, tore his grille clear out of it. He was mad, I was mad, the people were going crazy, the souvenir trailers were packed solid.
“Mr. France came down and said, ‘What the hell were you two idiots doing during the race?’ I looked over at him and said, ‘We were just selling t-shirts, sir.’”
