Why Earnhardt Jr. burned and what he learned by Kenny Wallace / FOX Sports Net

I talked to Dale Earnhardt Jr. last week, and we broke it down.

He had his drink tube on the left side of his neck because, in road racing,
they've got to get in and out of the car. The drink tube got so hot that it
melted against his neck. That's incredibly painful.

The other thing that happened was he was wearing his firesuit, fire shoes and
fire helmet. But the ambient heat was so hot at the top of his legs that it
literally gave him a second-degree burn basically like from a suntan.

Now he could have combat all of this by wearing a headsock. The headsock would
have covered the neck area, and he could have been wearing what we call a helmet
skirt that goes around the bottom of the helmet and that would have prevented
the plastic tube from sticking to his neck.

He was not wearing his fire-retardant underwear. He could have been wearing this
underneath his firesuit. He was not. So if he would have been wearing this, he
wouldn't have gotten that baked suntan on top of his legs.

Now this is what's interesting. He was wearing his fire-retardant on the upper
chest area. He did have that on, and he didn't have anything happen up there.

So he said those two things - the tube sticking to his neck and then thebig
suntan to the top of the legs - are what's keeping him out of the car this week.
(New Hampshire)


what he really learned - I AM AN IDIOT - for not wearing what i was supposed to



"I always end up being the man in
the middle." Dr. Maurice E. Gibb
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