NASCAR driver recalls on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast how he lost part of his thumb in an engine

“I’m a lot more careful where I stick it now,” Ken Schrader joked with Dale Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has led countless fascinating, hilarious and insightful conversations on his weekly podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, and this week’s guest, Ken Schrader, did not disappoint.

The pair, along with podcast co-host Mike Davis, covered a wide variety of topics, many of which focused on Schrader’s extensive racing career. And at one point in an abrupt change in conversation, Earnhardt asked the 64-year-old racer to recall how he lost part of his thumb at the race track.

“I’m a lot more careful where I stick it now,” Schrader joked before diving into one of the most cringeworthy NASCAR stories.

He explained how, in 1995 at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington for a NASCAR Truck Series race, he was getting ready for practice. The hood of his truck was up, and to Schrader, the alternator belt in the engine appeared a little off. So he tried to fix it himself.

As he explained on the Dale Jr. Download:

“So they just fired the truck up, I’m in my uniform, gonna warm it up, practice 15 minutes. It died. I reached down there — the belt looked loose — and when I reached down there, they fired it back up [and couldn’t see Schrader] because the hood was up. And [the thumb] went around between the belt and the pulley to the ear on the alternator.”

Schrader lost the top of his thumb and the first joint in the mishap. He continued:

“It was only bleeding in one place because it was all melded together, and I put a shop towel over it and started walking toward the ambulance and I told [crew chief] Timmy [Kohuth], I said, ‘Get my thumb and put it in a cup, and come over to the ambulance.'”

After a bit of confusion because the ambulance driver at the track was absent, he said he briefly went to the medical center before eventually going to the hospital. And he had specific instructions for the hospital staff.

“I said, ‘Make sure you cut a little extra out,'” Schrader recalled. “I’ve heard about people that cut a little extra bone out, so there’s enough meat on the end [to protect it] when you hit it.”

Back in 1995, Schrader told the Associated Press that losing the tip of his thumb didn’t impair his ability to drive, but “[i]t’s hard to tie your shoes.”

You can listen to the full Dale Jr. Download episode here.

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