Kevin Pennell Recalls Emotional Visit to the Dale Earnhardt’s Deer Head Shop After His Death
Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s love for the Deer Head Shop is well-known among NASCAR fans. It was his personal race shop, located on his Mooresville, North Carolina property, and a key part of the early Dale Earnhardt Inc. campus. The shop was a sacred workspace where Earnhardt and his crew worked on late-model cars for himself, Dale Jr., and Kerry, among others.
The Deer Head Shop witnessed it all, from working on and racing his Sikkens Busch car to Dale Jr. getting pranked with a Lady Cop on his milestone birthday. However, after Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001, the shop remained largely untouched, kept off-limits by Teresa Earnhardt. But Junior and longtime friend Kevin Pennell took a trip down memory lane and relived the last time they walked out of the shop for good.
In a recent conversation with Junior on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Kevin Pennell, also known as Two Beer, recalled his reaction to Earnhardt's death. He said, 'I felt really, really lost, like you know, no different than you would have been. Me and Tony Jr. looked at each other and kind of, you know, like, what are we going to do? We just didn’t have an answer. We walked across the street and walked in there, and sat down at the picnic table.'
Pennell's career with Dale Jr. began while he was still in high school, and he quickly became a full-time crew member after graduation. He spent his days at the Deer Head Shop, working on late-model cars, even before meeting Dale Earnhardt in person. During that time, he worked alongside longtime Earnhardt crew members Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr., learning from some of the sport's most respected names.
The Deer Head Shop featured three garage bays, Dale Earnhardt's office, a loft upstairs stacked with car parts and fluids, and a cedar closet filled with his uniforms from the 70s onward. It also had items belonging to his children. The shop got its name because the loft's outer wall was lined with dozens of mounted deer heads.
However, all that changed when Teresa Earnhardt claimed everything following her husband's tragic death in 2001. Tensions boiled over when Junior moved out of Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008, after asking for a 51% ownership stake in the company, which was denied by his stepmother. The company officially closed down after the 2009 NASCAR season.
This legal and personal rift led to restricting their access to any DEI property, with tensions boiling over between the two parties. But last month, the Dale Earnhardt Inc. campus opened up for a private tour, and two lucky Reddit users got a rare behind-the-scenes look at the DEI complex. They shared photos, offering a glimpse of racing history and a sneak peek at Dale Jr.'s No. 8 Chevy, which thrilled the veteran racer.
Pennell still has a lot of memories attached to the place and didn’t shy away from sharing some more. He recalled the time he was working underneath a car in the Deer Head Shop when Tony Eury Jr. had to dash out for something. Right then, the legendary Dale Earnhardt strolled in, wearing his signature cowboy boots in the garage.
Reflecting on the slightly terrifying moment, Kevin recalled, 'Because it was the cowboy boots walking on the floor, that walked over the top of me laying underneath the car, and grabbed me by my ankles and drug me out from underneath the car. And I’ve never seen him in person, never been around him. And the first deal was looking straight up at him, and his deal was, who the hell are you? And I got kind of the clammy mouth, you know, stuttering going, 'K-K-K-K-Kevin.' And he kind of looked down at me, and says, 'Well, I’m glad to meet you,' and he started stuttering, going 'K-K-K-K-Kevin.' And that’s how we struck things off.'
Their bond grew over the years, and it was Dale Earnhardt who gave Pennell his nickname, 'Two Beer,' after a late-model race in the Myrtle Beach area. Kevin, too young to join the crew for drinks, sat in the truck and had a few beers alone, earning the memorable moniker. Today, he looks back on those cherished memories with pride, knowing he worked with one of the greatest NASCAR drivers in history.
