The card pictured here is one of my prized possessions. I got this while helping my dad with deliveries back in 1986. He was going to B&R Racing Engines in Winston-Salem, NC to pick up an engine and we needed to go to Richard Childress Racing on the way back to drop off a carburetor. At some point fairly early in the trip, I decided I’d turn the carburetor box upside down over my lap and when I did, raw racing gas (leaded, very high-octane stuff back then) spilled into my lap, chemically burning (irritation, not fire) me. We pulled up outside RCR to find Dale Earnhardt on a forklift unloading an entire pallet of Busch beer. He jokingly offered me a beer, which I politely declined, and he immediately caught the smell of racing gas on me. My dad told the guys what I’d done, and they all said, “oooooooooooohhhhhhh” in unison because they’ve apparently spilled leaded racing gas on their lap at some point too. Dad asked Dale for his autograph, and he went in the shop, grabbed his “hero card”, and signed it for me. He told me it was the least he could do for a kid that could ride an hour and a half from Charlotte with racing gas on his man parts just to bring him a carburetor. We drove home, my day complete, “hero card” signed by my hero, and I took the longest, coldest bath EVER! I interacted with Dale a few times more through the years, but my first and last interactions with him were the most memorable. Truly an icon in the business. NASCAR is not the same without him.