Dale Earnhardt, Sr. after winning the 1987 All-Star Challenge at LMS in Concord, North Carolina. SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17th. (Lowe's Motor Speedway Archives Photo) » More Photos

Earnhardt received threats after the race and giant billboards sporting the faces of Earnhardt and Elliott that had been used in pre-race ceremonies were vandalized. Elliott and Earnhardt didn't carry the ill feelings into Coca-Cola 600 weekend, but Earnhardt and Bodine did.

The confrontations between the two during Saturday's Busch Series race and the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday resulted in both men being summoned to Daytona Beach, Fla., for a meeting with France; an event that was chronicled in the movie “Days of Thunder.”

“Dale and I both got our butts chewed out,” Bodine said about the meeting. “Bill France said if we didn't do it his way, he would find a way to make us do it his way. That stopped Dale from doing all of that bumping for quite a while. It slowed him down and kept peace on the track for a couple of years, then it started again. That was just his style: bump-and-run.”

To this day, the NASCAR Sprint All-Star race is one of Childress’s favorites.

“It to me is the most fun race that we run,” Childress said. “The drivers can be drivers. They can do things that are sometimes a little edgy on the last lap or two and NASCAR’s not going to spank your hand. It’s sorta like the old Saturday night racing to me. You go down there and you see the families, ‘cause it’s right here in Charlotte. I get a feel every time I go to the All-Star race, that, hey, this is Saturday night racing. It’s going to be fun racing, there’s no points involved, we’re going to go balls to the wall to try to win.”

And Childress remembers how Earnhardt always raced in these events.

“He won a couple of them,” said Childress. “Two or three times, we didn’t bring the car back, but he always brought me the steering wheel back.”

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17, as well as provide more than 90 hours

of support programming prior to the event. Stay tuned to SPEEDtv.com for frequent updates on the history of the event and all the details about this year’s action. Watch and Win!

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