Riding Right Seat with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

by Michael Satterfield - 10/03/2021

It’s not every day that a NASCAR fan gets to take a ride with one of their favorite drivers, so when Hellmann’s reached out to see if I would be interested in coming out to Bristol Motor Speedway to take a few laps around the last great colosseum with Dale Jr. the answer was obviously yes. I was a senior in high school when Dale Jr made his first start in a Cup Series race, at an exhibition race held at the Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, while Mike Skinner and Jeff Gordon were battling for first place, many of us were focused on the Earnhardt vs Earnhardt storyline of the race. Needless to say, I was excited to have a chance to be in the car with NASCAR Royalty.

Bristol is one of NASCAR’s most popular tracks thanks to the night race which they have held on “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” since 1975. It is a track that Jr. knows well since he has had 25 career Top-10 finishes and several podiums. We would be taking our rides a few days before the night race, as part of a fundraiser for the DaleJr. Foundation, the NASCAR Cup car was wrapped in the latest Hellmann’s blue and yellow livery. The new livery is part of a campaign by Hellmann’s to encourage everyone to reduce food waste by remixing what they have in the fridge with the help of Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, Dressings, and Sauces.

After lunch and a quick Q&A session with Dale Jr, it was time to suit up and head out to the track. As someone who has been behind the wheel of a NASCAR and has been watching it for as long as I can remember, seeing what a championship-winning driver can do would be exciting. I was 6^th in line for my ride with Dale, but it was clear that he wasn’t doing parade laps after watching the first car take off from the pits for a very fast three laps, as each rider climbed out with a smile from ear to ear, the anticipation was building.

If you have ever been to a NASCAR race the noise is incredible, but the sound of the single-car echoing off the walls of the nearly empty speedway allowed you to hear each shift, throttle lift, and squeal of the tires as Dale pushed the car around the tiny concrete oval. For a motorsports enthusiast, it was the soundtrack of a master at work, an audio roadmap to the best way around the track.

My time had come, the Hellmann’s Yellow and Blue car pulled into the pits, and it was my turn to climb through the window, the seating position in the ride-a-long car puts your in a position where you are almost laying down, with two large grab handles to try to help keep you in place. The five-point harness strapped on, dale put the hammer down and we thundered off pitlane and onto the track.

The noise from outside of the car is amazing, but inside even with earplugs and a helmet it is jarring but feels so different as a passenger. When you are behind the wheel you feel connected to the noise and it tells you what the car is doing, as a passenger the noise is all around you and feels almost monotone. Sitting in the passenger seat, you also get a different appreciation of just how close to the outside wall a professional driver can get, we were almost trading paint on some laps.

Like a flash, the three laps are over and its time to climb back out of the car and back to reality, in just a few days thousands of fans would get to watch a Hellmann’s car make the rounds but for me and a handful of guests, we got to see it from behind the windshield.

Watch my full experience at Bristol with Hellmann's and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on YouTube.