First person: My time with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

It's not often that those of us who follow a particular sports figure ever get to meet them in real life. It's even rarer the moment when we get to interact with them on a personal level. So when I got to take Dale Earnhardt Jr. on a tour of my workplace only a month after his father had passed away at Daytona, it made the opportunity that much more special.

At the time, I worked for a company that manufactured Radio Controlled cars. Turned out, Dale Jr. had been racing them for a while too. So when an order came across my desk with a shipping address of Dale Earnhardt Inc, I decided to follow up on it personally.

Within a short time, that phone call to verify the order turned into an in depth conversation with one of the crew members of Dale's racing team. He told me that Dale had got his team, Michael Waltrip, and Waltrip's team hooked on Radio Controlled Cars.

It just so happened that the first race of the season at California Speedway was coming up in a few weeks.

"Say," the team member asked me, "do you think we could come and take a tour of the shop?"

"Sure!" I replied even though I did not have the authority to.

At first my contact was not sure if Dale Jr. would come. After all, with his father's passing he was a much sought after interview and his free time was minimal. On the day the team was supposed to come visit, Jr. had an interview session but he told the team they could not leave without him!

Thus Dale Jr. and his racing team came by our shop and I got to take them on a tour of our facility. It was a moment for Jr. to be out of the media spotlight, relax, and be himself. Later I would be told by my contact that Dale Jr. talked about the visit the entire race weekend at California and how, for a little while, it was nice to be treated like just a regular guy.

By Troy Lyman,

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor.