Published 02/03/2023, 10:45 AM EST
Yes, Dale Earnhardt was one of a kind, and the biggest chunk of his success and legend came at Richard Childress Racing. But as is the case in almost all sports, the Intimidator couldn’t have done it all by himself alone.
He needed a crew, which he got, of which one key member was his gasman, Danny ‘Chocolate’ Myers.
Unfortunately, though, now Myers has recently been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
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According to WFMY News, Myers’ wife revealed he has a rare, aggressive form of lymphoma. But even the cancer isn’t enough to stop the man as he insisted he would continue working at the RCR Museum and continue fighting this tough battle.
How Myers came to be in the crew of Dale Earnhardt?
Speaking to Autoweek in a 2020 interview, Earnhardt’s former gasman revealed just how he found his way into the crew of the eventually seven-time Cup Series champion, having tried his hand at racing himself for a brief period.
“Richard needed a gasman for this Earnhardt fellow,” Myers said. “I’m a pretty big man (he easily goes a burly 6-4 and 250), so I got the job. I worked in the shop as a general mechanic all week, then refueled Dale’s car on weekends during the years we won races and championships.”
“Back then, things weren’t as specialized as they are now. I did a little of everything.”
10 Feb 1999: Dale Earnhardt #3 races his car during the Daytona 500 Speedweek at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida. Mandatory Credit: David Taylor /Allsport
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NASCAR of today simply cannot be the way it was back in the day as per Myers
Today, there’s a lot of fans who complain that NASCAR ‘isn’t what it was’. But it cannot be, at least that’s what Chocolate Myers argued a few years ago. He claimed that he gets “in a lot of trouble with old-timers” who wonder why racing can’t be the way it was back in the day.
“I tell them that, yes, racing was great back then; it really was. But also tell them that what worked back then would not work today,” Myers reasoned.
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He described that back when someone like Richard Petty was racing, “passing wasn’t hard” simply because Petty might’ve had a 50 mph advantage over the next best car.
“When you look at today’s teams, the good teams, the well-funded teams, and the underfunded teams are all running pretty close to each other on the track,” he added.
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“That’s because the playing field is so much more level than it’s ever been.”