PLAYBOY: Let's start fast. How does it feel when you hit a wall at 190 miles per hour?
EARNHARDT: It hurts! I blew a tire at California this year and thought, I am going to hit the wall. In that spot you're not in charge of the car. You're just sliding. You turn the wheel all the way left and nothing happens. You can't help tensing up, but at the moment you smack the wall, you have to go limp, relax all your muscles. If you put your arm out straight, you'll get a compound fracture in your forearm.

PLAYBOY: Is that instinct, or did you learn how to crash?
EARNHARDT: I'm ashamed to say that I've wrecked 10 or 15 times, enough to really know how.

PLAYBOY: How about after the crash?
EARNHARDT: You've done 15 to 50 feet of sliding, then smack! It stuns you for a second. You come off the wall and you're still moving, but you can't steer or slow down. Will you hit something else? Are you in oncoming traffic, with cars going 200 miles an hour? Once you get the car stopped, you're like this [touching his arms and legs]. Any sharp pains? If not, pull your window net down -- that's the signal you're OK.

PLAYBOY: After your tire blew in this year's NAPA Auto Parts 500, was your radio still working?
EARNHARDT: I could hear my crew asking about the backup car. I ain't even stopped! Next thing I heard was, "Get the backup car out there, damn it!"

PLAYBOY: We have to talk about your father's crash. Late in this year's Daytona 500, your team was running one-two-three. It was Michael Waltrip, you and then your father in third. But Sterling Marlin was gaining. It was your dad's job to get in Marlin's way. Here's how one newspaper put it: "It appeared that Earnhardt was willing to wreck his own car to keep Marlin behind him." Is that true?
EARNHARDT: He didn't decide to wreck. Michael was leading the race. I was in second, so I was in the same situation as my father. You want to win, but it's your teammate up there. If you hold your position and he wins, the team wins.

PLAYBOY: In that spot, you take one for the team.
EARNHARDT: Right. That's what he was doing.

PLAYBOY: What were you thinking during that last lap?
EARNHARDT: That I want to win the Daytona 500. But if I try to pass Michael and then for some reason I don't win, I'd never hear the end of it from my father. "You fucked up," he'd say. "You should have stayed in line!"

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