Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dented His Brand New Chevy Silverado And Was Too Embarrassed To Tell Anyone How It Happened

Dale Earnhardt Jr. can definitely drive, but he needs a little help parking.

The 26-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner bought a new Chevrolet Silverado in September to replace his old one.

He traded in a 2021 Trail Boss with 32,000 miles on it for the same model, just switching from white to black paint. He said he got $40,000 for the trade-in.

“I like pretty simple stuff, I don’t need the options, I don’t need all the extras because I don’t even think to use them,” he said. And that includes heated seats.

Read Also: ‘NEW’ 2026 CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 NASCAR CAR REVEALED

“I rarely ever even think to use those, it’ll be freaking 30 degrees outside and it never crosses my mind to turn on the heated seat even though it’s there,” he said. “I’ll be driving down the rod and I’m like, ‘s—, the seat’s getting warm,’ and [his wife] Amy will have turned it on.”

On the latest episode of the couple’s Bless Your ‘Hardt podcast, Amy busted him for already damaging the truck and trying to keep it a secret.

Read Also: STICK-SHIFT CHEVROLET SILVERADO LAUNCHES WITH 1,000 HP V8

Dale explained that they have a tight garage that’s full of stuff and that he’d hung a tennis ball from the ceiling to help him line it up perfectly when pulling in, so that he could leave room in front of it, but not have the garage door hit it when it closed. It’s a common hack. When the ball taps the windshield, you’re good. But while he planned to not stand on the hood when he climbed up to install the ball, he put his arm on it and dented it.

“When I got done and got this tennis ball mounted and got down, I could see there was a dent in my hood.” he said. “And there was a dent in my roof, I guess where maybe I put an elbow? I’m not sure.”

He didn’t tell anyone what happened, but brought the car to a friend’s body shop to get it fixed.

“The truck comes back and it looks freaking perfect, you can’t even tell it,” he said. “Didn’t even have to paint it or nothing. It’s incredible.”

He said he didn’t tell anyone at the house about it because “I was embarrassed, but mostly mad,” but he got caught because his daughters noticed the truck was missing.

“No one needed to know,” he said

Follow American Cars And Racing across our social media on X, Flipboard, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook.