Amy Earnhardt is a kind, caring wife to husband Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Amy Earnhardt is a manipulative control freak who has her hubby wrapped under her thumb.
Pick a narrative, and run with it. The Internet can spin things very differently each and every day of the week, but what happened to Amy Earnhardt exemplifies the crazy juice that flows on Twitter 24/7, all in 140 characters or less.
Earnhardt's cyberspace crime was not wanting her husband to compete in NASCAR's 2018 preseason Clash in February at Daytona International Speedway just because, well, you know, another high-speed accident could jumble his brain forevermore.
The nerve of that lady!
The social-media ruckus started when Dale Jr. fessed up earlier this week that Amy was against him running the event, staged on one of NASCAR's fabled restrictor-plate tracks. Junior won the pole at this year's Daytona 500, making him eligible to race, even though he won't be on the circuit next season.
Three words:
Please. Stop. It.
Earnhardt, 42, is getting out of the game in large measure because of multiple-concussion issues, including the latest jolt that took him out for half the season in 2016. So maybe Amy doesn't want to spend the golden years of her life caring for a husband who is broken down mentally from all the hits to the head.
"I've received many comments on Dale Jr. running the 2018 Clash, based on whether or not I give my blessing," Amy wrote on Twitter. "Considering his struggles last fall with his injury, we are very blessed that he is now healthy, happy and able to enjoy his final season ... and hopefully many years beyond racing. So my answer is simple. It's not worth the risk of his health."
Of course it isn't. There would be sadness, but not much honor, in doing something so incredibly stupid that it could impair you for life. All because you competed in a staged event with very little relevance on your racing resume. Although Earnhardt never did point to a definitive smoking gun when he announced in April that he was shutting down his full-time Cup career after this season, it is obvious that the concussion risk is huge.
He knows the inherent danger of getting banged up against a wall while driving nearly 200 miles an hour. Taking a jolt like that won't likely kill him because of innovative technology like a head-and-neck-restraint device. His father very likely could have survived the last-lap crash in Daytona in 2001 had he been wearing one.
But it's still a shock to the system. Earnhardt always has been well aware of consequences, already having offered to donate his brain to science after he dies.
The pop psychologist in me says that Earnhardt has checked out already, reflective of his poor performance this season. He was 21st in points before Sunday's race at Indianapolis, without a victory. It didn't get any better when an accident on Lap 75 knocked him out of the lengthy crashfest that eventually was won by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne.
The laps are clicking down, and Junior just wants to get out alive, be happy and enjoy the spoils of a good life that includes a net worth estimated at $225 million.
Unfortunately, Earnhardt and his wife can't escape the Social Shaming Police.
"I kind of threw her under the bus there and probably should have never even mentioned it," Earnhardt said this past week, "but it put her in a tough spot and she felt like she had to voice some sort of a statement about it and I thought she handled it well. For no more characters than she used, I thought she got her point across."
Junior still wants to run the race, but he also seems respectful of his wife's wishes. Repeat after me: Happy Wife, Happy Life.
That said, this is a conversation between two people. And unless you are Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Amy Earnhardt, you aren't one of them.
Kindly keep the noise down because it's distracting, but mostly disrespectful.
