It sounds like the start of a joke — a NASCAR driver and a country singer walk into a bar. Dale Earnhardt Jr. once opened up about randomly running into George Strait at a Florida bar.
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They were in Key West at a bar called Schooner Wharf. Earnhardt was with his friend Billy when they noticed Strait nearby having a drink with his son, Bubba. Earnhardt and Billy had a conversation about whether or not to approach Strait. The country singer had known his father and went hunting together.
"Right there sits George Strait, having a drink. And so I told Billy, I said 'Man... I know he hunted with dad, I know he knows dad.' And as we're kind of having that conversation, he looks over and his sons with him, and his son walks over and says, 'Hey, dad would like to have a drink, hang out,'" he said. "And I was like, 'Of course, you're dang right. George Strait? You bet.' So we sit down with George, we took a picture, we talked, he told me about hunting with dad, and we had a beer."
George Strait And Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Neither had their phones on them. They asked to use Bubba's phone to contact their wives, sending a photo of themselves alongside Strait. "While this is happening, it dawned on us that if George's son was okay with it, we could use his phone to text the picture to them, to our wives. And we did. So we send them the picture on his phone, we're like 'Man, we ain't got our phones, they're at home, we gotta find our family, if we could use your phone we'll send this picture that we just took of George Strait and us to them," Earnhardt recounted.
Afterward, they hang out with Strait for a couple of minutes. Earnhardt says, "We do that, George stays for another couple minutes, says 'Alright, I'm gonna head home.'" Their families missed meeting Strait by a couple of minutes.
"As soon as they walked out, literally moments later, here comes our gang, wide open, loud, 'Where's George? Where y'all been?' Barreling into this bar. They were out of breathe trying to get there fast enough," he said. "He left... And then, you know, the attention went from that to this is all our fault."
He has kept the photo in his house all these years. He said, "This happened years ago, and it's been an ongoing joke. I have that picture of me and Billy and George Strait in my beach house for Amy to see every day. I don't let her live it down. It goes back and forth."
