Did you know that Dale Earnhardt Jr made his unofficial debut for Hendrick Motorsport, even before he joined? The year was 2007, and Kyle Busch had wrecked his No. 5 car at Texas Motor Speedway, which was taken into the garage for repair. By the time the car was ready to be driven, Rowdy was nowhere to be found, Junior was asked to take over the reins and drive the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports car for the final nine laps.

That moment was Junior’s audition at NASCAR’s most successful team, where he went on to race for 10 years. However, things were far from straightforward for Junior during his final season at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.

The time Dale Earnhardt Jr drove for two teams in one race

How did Dale Earnhardt Jr get the opportunity to drive for Hendrick Motorsport at Texas Motor Speedway? It all began on April 15, 2007, when Kyle Busch’s No. 5 Chevrolet rammed into the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s No. 8 Chevy, while the pair were navigating through the smoke created by Tony Stewart, who had spun exiting Turn 4. Junior’s team managed to repair his No. 8 Chevy and return it to the race, but the car developed engine trouble in Lap 288, forcing him to retire. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch’s No. 5 Chevrolet was repaired as well, but Rowdy was nowhere to be found.

Recollecting his ‘unofficial’ Hendrick Motorsports debut, Dale Earnhardt Jr said, said, “So a buddy of a mine, one of my drinking buddies that was on the 5 car that I hung out with during the week, he comes over and is like, ‘Hey man, can you drive our car? We’re in a points situation, we need to get a couple more points here and go out and run.’ I’m like, ‘This is awesome. I’ve always wondered what the Hendrick cars felt like. What the motors felt like. This is a crashed car but maybe I can at least feel the power compared to my car and what I’ve been driving.’”

While it’s that moment in Texas that may have decided how Dale Earnhardt Jr’s next decade in NASCAR will be, his 2007 season was a difficult one. With 9 DNFs across 36 races, the majority of them being engine problems, conspiracy theories were running wild that Dale Earnhardt Incorporated was sabotaging Junior’s races out of spite. Some fans felt that the bad luck was due to Teresa Earnhardt’s ‘curse’, which eventually resulted in Junior not getting any wins in 36 races. Despite a miserable time at DEI in 2007, it was that one moment in Texas that defined Dale Earnhardt Jr’s future.

Everyone within the NASCAR community knows about Dale Earnhardt Jr’s strained relationship with his stepmother Teresa Earnhardt. The pair haven’t seen eye-to-eye since she refused to give a share of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated to Junior and his sister Kelly. Junior made a name for himself at DEI, spending 9 years on the team, until months of non-payment forced him to leave for Hendrick Motorsport in 2008.

In his final season at DEI, Dale Earnhardt Jr finished 16th in the driver standings, four places below his 12th-place finish at Hendrick Motorsports during his ‘official debut’ season a year later. However, fans still remember Dale Earnhardt Jr driving for two teams in one race at Texas Motor Speedway, not just for its bizarre circumstances, but as a prediction for what’s coming.

Fans react to Earnhardt Jr’s Hendrick Motorsports debut

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Remembering the time Junior did the unthinkable by driving for two different teams in one day, fans took to Reddit to share their views about the situation. Remembering the nine DNFs that Junior experienced that season, one fan brought up the conspiracy that there was sabotage involved by Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. The fan wrote, “Dale lost so many motors that year that everyone genuinely thought DEI was doing it out of spite for him leaving. It was like a ridiculously inordinate amount of times they had some kind of mechanical failure that season.”

In response to the fan’s conspiracy theory, a NASCAR fan chimed in by saying, “That honestly wouldn’t surprise me”. Another fan felt that driving the No. 5 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsport was the turning point for Dale Earnhardt Jr’s 2008 Cup Series season. The fan wrote, “This moment was such a catalyst for a hell of a silly season leading into 08.”

Driving Kyle Busch’s No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsport, which had already been involved in a crash, one fan felt that it still performed better than any car Dale Earnhardt Jr drove in the 2007 season. The fan wrote on Reddit, “That busted up 5 car probably went faster than his DEI cars did all year.” Echoing that sentiment, another fan recollected Junior’s quote from after the race, saying, “I think his quote after the race was something like ‘I could tell it was a really good car before the wreck’”.

Do you think driving Kyle Busch’s No. 5 Chevy shaped Dale Earnhardt Jr’s career? Let us know in the comments!