--- title: Jimmy Fallon and Dale Earnhardt Jr Raced on Cooler Scooters description: The late night host faced off against the NASCAR legend on a race around The Tonight Show set canonical: https://time.com/5323696/jimmy-fallon-dale-earnhardt/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-28T15:04:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:34.371Z og:title: Jimmy Fallon and Dale Earnhardt Jr Race on Cooler Scooters og:description: The late night host and the NASCAR legend raced around The Tonight Show set og:url: https://time.com/5323696/jimmy-fallon-dale-earnhardt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Fallon and Dale Earnhardt Jr Race on Cooler Scooters twitter:description: The late night host and the NASCAR legend raced around The Tonight Show set twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # NASCAR Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmy Fallon Had a Very Tight Scooter Race by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 28, 2018 3:04 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 28, 2018 3:04 PM UTC Dale Earnhardt Jr. may have retired from [NASCAR](http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,1714213,00.html), but he still knows how to race. The former driver stopped by _The Tonight Show_ on Wednesday night and accepted host Jimmy Fallon’s challenge to race around the studio on coolers that had been transformed into riding scooters. [Earnhardt Jr.](http://time.com/4955774/nascar-trump-protest-dale-earnhardt-jr/) hit the race track prepared to win, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with his late father Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s No. 3 Chevrolet car on it, along with a beer helmet on his head. Fallon in his suit-and-tie combo looked hopelessly out of place and under-prepared for taking on the racing champ, even though it was his team that came up with the ridiculous race. Earnhardt Jr. quickly proved his racing chops, making his way through the studio’s halls and neatly avoiding obstacles like beach balls, kids with water guns, and a barbecue set-up. Fallon never stood a chance as Earnhardt Jr. who easily crossed the finish line ahead of Fallon. Of course, [Earnhardt Jr.](http://time.com/5027052/dale-earnhardt-jr-is-going-out-on-his-own-terms/) had a lot more to lose than Fallon. It would have been pretty embarrassing if the 26-time NASCAR winner had lost a race to a late night talk show host. If he had lost it would have given his co-workers a lot to tease him about when he takes over as an official NASCAR race day analyst on NBC. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5323696/jimmy-fallon-dale-earnhardt/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5323696/jimmy-fallon-dale-earnhardt/"},"headline":"NASCAR Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmy Fallon Had a Very Tight Scooter Race","datePublished":"2018-06-28T15:04:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:34.371Z","description":"The late night host faced off against the NASCAR legend on a race around The Tonight Show set","url":"https://time.com/5323696/jimmy-fallon-dale-earnhardt/","keywords":["Newsfeed","jimmy fallon","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5323696/jimmy-fallon-dale-earnhardt/","name":"NASCAR Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmy Fallon Had a Very Tight Scooter Race"}}]}] ```