Dale Earnhardt never liked going backwards, except on a bicycle

Ken Willis, The Daytona Beach News-Journal
·2 min read
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Is Dale Earnhardt the all-time best NASCAR racer from North Carolina? Maybe.
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I was looking through our Dale Earnhardt photo archives recently and came across a picture of the Intimidator on a bicycle.

Then another.

And another.

And eventually the video above from 30 years ago at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, when NASCAR first visited for a tire test that led to the first Brickyard 400 two years later.

You see all this and you have to wonder: Did Dale know how to ride a bike in proper fashion?

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Go to your favorite search engine and type in "Dale Earnhardt bike," and you aren't likely to see the NASCAR legend riding a bike any way other than backwards, fanny on the handlebars, feet on pedals facing the "wrong" way . . . and smile on his face as he looks over his shoulder to make sure the coast is clear.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., with more access than others to old family photos, tweeted one of Dale Sr. cruising around the perimeter of a backyard pool while on vacation.

"Pops on vacation, mid 90s," the tweet says. "He could ride a bike backwards. An odd talent that he was quite proud of."

Turns out, Earnhardt picked up the habit early in life back in his hometown of Kannapolis, N.C.

In Leigh Montville's book on Earnhardt, "At the Altar of Speed," he quotes Earnhardt's uncle, Dub Coleman, who was his mother Martha's brother.

"Dale was kind of a unique kid. One thing he did ... he could ride a bicycle backwards as well as he could forwards. He'd ride all over the place. Backwards. He'd build his own bikes, too. From an early age, he knew what to do in the garage."

Eventually on Twitter, Dale Jr., who took up bicycling later in life, went with a mini-collage to show off the biking habits of two generations of Earnhardts.

Meanwhile, if you're ever being convinced you're still capable of doing something and someone says, "Come on, it's like riding a bike," look at that guy and say, "You ever see Dale Earnhardt ride a bike? No thanks!"

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt going backwards? Only on a bike