Dale Earnhardt Broke His Hand Punching Trespasser on Farm, Dale Jr. Recalls

NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt once broke his hand while punching a man who had trespassed onto his North Carolina farm and shot one of his deer, according to his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The incident, recounted on Dale Jr.'s podcast "The Dale Jr. Download," occurred in 1993 when a man working on Earnhardt's property spotted deer. Later that day, the man and a friend returned to the farm, seeking to shoot one of the animals.

Unbeknownst to the trespassers, Earnhardt and his farm manager were nearby and heard the gunshot. They observed a wounded deer fall before the two men approached to retrieve it. Earnhardt then charged the man with the gun, tackling him and punching him in the face, resulting in Earnhardt breaking his own hand.

According to Dale Jr., his father recognized the man as the same individual who had been working on his tractor earlier that day. Earnhardt then held the man until law enforcement arrived.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained that his father was not upset about the loss of the deer itself but rather that he enjoyed having the animals on his property and wished to keep them undisturbed. He preferred to watch the deer and did not want to hunt them himself.

Earnhardt reportedly did not want news of the incident to spread, fearing it would encourage more people to trespass on his property to hunt. When he attended the 1993 NASCAR awards banquet, where he received his sixth Cup Series championship trophy, he wore a cast on his broken hand. He told people he injured it in a separate incident to avoid revealing the true reason.

Following the injury, Earnhardt was informed he would not be allowed to compete in the Daytona 500 with a cast. He subsequently removed it himself.