When Bethany Davidson learned that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was coming to town, she would have done anything to see him.
Even turn down a birthday party for the $100 ticket to the event. All she wanted for her 12th birthday was to see Dale Jr.
At first, her father, Catawba College Athletics Director Dennis Davidson, said no. But Bethany wanted it.
“And she’s always been a big help around the house,” he said.
So, her mother, Toni, bought Bethany a ticket, and one for herself, and they went.
“When she found out he was coming, there was no stopping her,” she said.
Bethany even would have missed a beach trip to stay home and see Dale Jr.
The first time he was scheduled to appear at the South Rowan YMCA, he had to cancel. When Toni talked to the people in charge of the event, they said they would reschedule for late July or early August. Luckily, Dale Jr. arrived Tuesday night, a week before the Davidsons’ vacation.
The fund-raiser for the South Rowan YMCA drew a large crowd of Dale Jr. fans from all over the county.
Junior was all smiles for the cameras, his autographing pen ready, during his pit stop between races at New Hampshire last week and Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500.
Everyone who came had something for him to autograph. One couple even had two bags full of things that Earnhardt dutifully signed, then helped put back in the bags.
Most of the people there were big fans of Junior.
“He’s the best since his daddy’s gone,” said Melba Funderburk, a fan of Dale and now Dale Jr. “We wish him as well as his daddy did,” she added.
“He’s my favorite star,” said 5-year-old Jordan Wise.
“Him and his daddy were my favorite drivers,” Morgan Tadlock, 8, added.
Even though a dinner of catfish, fries and slaw was served, no one was there for the food. Many of the women attending the event between the ages of 15 and 30 had a much bigger catch than catfish in mind — they were dressed up to ask Earnhardt to marry them.
Yes, marry them.
During the question-and-answer session that Earnhardt and his publicist had, there were countless proposals.
One came from Cynthia Foster, but not for her.
“Will you marry my sister Tiffany Ross?” she asked. All Dale Jr. could do was laugh.
Most of the questions were about his car, the race tracks and bullet holes.
Yes, bullet holes. He has a decal of stick-on bullet holes on the truck he drives — Earnhardt said fellow NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler found the bullet holes on the Internet and gave them to him).
As for the car, no, he doesn’t think that NASCAR is going to make the V8 engine obsolete and he would change the cars in only one way. He is working on a system to listen to music in his car while he is driving on the tracks, yet still not miss what his crew chief says.
The tracks? He likes the restrictor plate tracks, NASCAR is probably not going to buy Wilkesboro Speedway (because they are asking too much for it), and his favorite tracks are Talladega and Daytona.
“Indianapolis is fun because of the history,” he added. “You go there and you can feel it.”
As for his favorite driver, that goes to Bobby Labonte.
“I like Labonte. He likes the stuff that I like,” Earnhardt said. “And, he’s a real smart aleck.”
The one thing that most of the ladies at the event wanted to know was how to get tickets to Club E — the place he and his friends relax at his home.
“A bio,” he said.
“And an 8 by 10,” his publicist added, laughing.
Everyone at the event had something to take home.
There was a session during the event where Dale Jr. had his picture taken with everyone who was there. After the questions and answers, he autographed the photos and gave them out.
Bethany was excited about the chance to meet her favorite driver.
Excited enough to burn up a role of film and record him on the family camcorder.
In all, she got six autographs from Dale Jr: a hat, the program, two pictures, a Dale stand-up doll and her ticket from the event.
“He’s made me a fan of NASCAR,” Bethany said.
In February, she couldn’t list a single fact about any of the drivers. Now, she knows everything.
But, was it worth the $100 ticket to see Dale Jr. for two hours?
“For me to see her happy,” said Bethany’s mother, “it was worth it.”
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