Dale Earnhardt Sr Ourisman Chevrolet 1996

by Richie Watson

Well, in the year I happened to be a sales manager for Ourisman Chevrolet that year, from what I understood, Dale Earnhardt Sr. made appearances for Goodwrench General Motors.

Since this was a brand new Chevy dealer, he made the trip there for this reason. I can recall him being picked up from the airport by the comptroller of the Ourisman Chevy store in Wheaton, Maryland.

The story was when he was picked up, on the way to the dealership to sign autographs, he had the guys who picked him up stop at a 7-Eleven to pick him up some Budweiser beer on his way to the dealership. I thought that was awesome.

Anyhow, he showed up and obviously there was a huge amount of people who showed up to meet him and get autographs. They did this autograph session in the showroom, directly in front of the podium I worked at as sales manager. He had a few people guarding him-- some police and some of his own personnel. There was a chair next to him, for what reason I didn't know, but there was no one sitting in it while he was signing autographs and meeting the people who had came to see him.

Well I got the big idea I would go over and sit next to him. So I did. I can recall when I sat down there next to him, there was a presence there which was very powerful. He signed a few things while I was there before he realized I was sitting next to him.

I recall him looking at me with that unique smile he had and saying in a low voice, "Who in the hell are you?" I answered, "Well, I'm Richie Watson. I'm the sales manager here and this here is my showroom where I work." He smiled and looked me and said, "Well son this is my showroom now," and he jokingly put his elbow in my side, like a rib shot. Laughing, I said, "Yes sir, I guess it is", and both of us laughed.

It was a great moment for me, and luckily, when I went to sit next to him, I gave a camera to a person who also worked there at the dealership. Thankfully, she got off a couple of photos, which I obviously covet to this day. One is of him letting me know it was his showroom now and we were both smiling and the other is of me just sitting there next to him.

Well one of the reasons why I'm putting this info in here is, that day, at our parts department, I bought an Indy pace truck from the Brickyard race that year. It has a Tonneau cover on the bed with a nice orange bow tie on it. It is a white truck with blue trim. When Dale looked at me I told him I would love it if he would sign it for me so I could give it to my son who was about 1 year old at the time. When he signed that for me he was smiling and he told me that he had never signed a truck and he thought it to be comical that I would ask him to sign something like that.

I do recall that day there were many things he would not sign. For what reason he wouldn't sign, I'm not sure-- maybe different sponsorships and such. So i figure I might have the only die cast truck that he had ever signed, and I wonder what something like that could be worth?

I hope you enjoyed my story. Also on that particular day, George Michaels of the Sports Machine did an interview with Dale in the showroom that evening for his show. I got to meet him as well and had my picture taken with him.