Dale Earnhardt always intimidated his competitors out on the racetrack, as well as the press who came asking questions. Broadcaster Ralph Sheheen, however, refused to break, despite the Intimidator’s best efforts.
Detailing an interview he had with Earnhardt at the Winston one year, Sheheen says Earnhardt “dug into his kidneys like there was no tomorrow trying to get me to break.” Sheheen not only went about his business but went on with the interview longer than he initially planned, just to prove to ‘Big E’ that he was no pushover like some of his colleagues. Sheheen says that the interview made Earnhardt gain respect for the California native, which proved a very valuable asset.
Growing up in California, Sheheen watched whatever form of racing he could, and always made time for the superspeedway events that NASCAR had to offer. After a stint calling events in a given week, including Motocross and fashion shows at a local bar, Sheheen got his big break.
“When I graduated from college, there was an IMSA season finale in Del Mar, California,” Sheheen explained. “I called up about being the PA announcer, and they said they had all their PA guys, but we need a TV announcer for pit road on the ESPN broadcast. They said, ‘Have you ever done TV?’ Oh yeah, sure, I’ve done a ton of TV. Well, I’ve never been on TV a day in my life,” Sheheen said, recounting the experience. “But I figured, hey, the door’s cracked open, you got to come on through, you know?”
Like so many in the motorsports broadcasting field, Sheheen’s longevity is nearly as impressive as his accolades themselves, such as his induction into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2023. Sheheen says there’s not necessarily a secret to a long career, and also says that you can’t make everyone happy.
“It’s very subjective, so you’re not going to like everybody,” he said. There’s people that are going to love me and despise ‘The Postman’. There’s going to be people that love Steve (Post) and despise me. That’s fine. That’s the way it goes. It’s just human nature. I think everybody is pretty good at what we do. And then it becomes subjective as to who you like. After that, I think you just have to find your groove, whatever that is. Some guys like Mike Joy are really good at history. Dick Berggren was outstanding at the technical side of things. He could tell you all about the nuts and bolts of the race car. I tend to go more of an enthusiastic level when I’m doing play-by-play. So you have to find your lane and try to stay there. You need to know what your real strengths are and play to that. And after that, you have to be a good person, got to be easy to work with. Don’t be a diva. Don’t come in thinking you’re better than everyone else on the crew, because you’re not. And you can easily be replaced.”
Sheheen was also firm on facts and journalistic integrity, telling a fantastic story involving Dale Earnhardt in the process.
“You’ve got to do what you tell the athletes you’re going to do. Perfect example, there was this one time in Atlanta, Earnhardt Sr. had the flu. He really wasn’t feeling good. My producer really wanted to hear from Dale on this. So I went over, knocked on his door, and I said ‘Hey man, I got to ask you one question. One, Dale, Just one.’ And he stepped out to do the interview, and I asked him one question, the one question I knew my producer needed. Even if I thought of a second one, there was no way I was asking him that question. I told him I had to do one. If I did two, he never answers that second question, and I never get another (interview) with him. So whatever it is, you’ve got to be true to what you tell them you’re going to do.”
After I made a quick mention of Dale Earnhardt liking to mess with the press, Sheheen came out with his best anecdote of the day about an encounter he had with Earnhardt at the Winston.
“We were on the air, and I’m supposed to interview him pre-race. They used to run a limited sportsman category prior to the (Cup) race, and Kerry Earnhardt was running in it. And Dale knew we were supposed to do this interview live, but he got stuck up watching Kerry’s race and missed the interview. And he comes running out and he goes, ‘Oh man, I’m so sorry.’ I go, ‘don’t worry about it.’
It’s Dale Earnhardt. They’ll take that interview whenever they can get it. So I told my producer, hey, Dale’s ready now. And they said, sure enough, let’s come on down. So I come walking over, he (Dale) goes ‘Hey, girls, come over here.’ And there’s these two young ladies standing over there. He gets them in the middle between us, you know, whatever Dale wants to do, you just do it.
Dale’s in a great mood, and we start doing our interview. He says, ‘all right girls, get out of here, Sheheen and I need to talk business.’ So they get out, and then he scoots in next to me and he reaches around behind me, and he is digging into my kidneys like there’s no tomorrow. He’s doing everything he can to get me to break. And I purposely went longer with the interview just because there was no way I was going to break. I couldn’t let him get away with that because I knew what that would mean. If he got one up on you, then it’s game over. He always tried to test you. If you could pass his test, it was good. And as he was walking away, he turns around and pow, just let me have it on the shoulder.”
Earnhardt was also the subject of Sheheen’s favorite memory from his over 3-and-a-half decade career covering racing, though it was far from a victorious moment for the Intimidator.
“Remember the year (1997) he flipped down the backstretch and got out of the car, and then he goes into the ambulance and sees the tires are still full of air, and he gets back into the car and drives it around? Well, at the end of the race, our producer needed someone to go interview Dale. Everybody else is tied up and I didn’t realize nobody had gone to Dale yet. So I said, ‘I’ll go get him.’ So I go running to get to Dale, and I come around the corner and he’s sitting there in this smoking heap of metal, and he’s standing next to this torn-up race car and there’s all these media guys around. Well, we’re live TV, so I just dive into the pile, and he sees me coming through with the microphone, and he reaches in and pulls me through, and he goes, ‘What do you need?’ I said, “Well I’ve got to interview you, but my battery died on our cameraman back here, so they’re bringing us a new battery. I’m down for a minute.”
He goes, ‘Well let’s go back to the hauler.’ So he goes walking through the crowd to go to the hauler, and he reaches back and grabs me and pulls me through, and I’m screaming, ‘I’ve got Dale, I’ve got Dale!’ We get over to the hauler and he stands on this ice chest, and he tells the rest of the crowd, ‘I’m not going to do anyone else’s interviews until I’m done talking to Ralph.’ I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing, right?’ So we finally got the battery on that camera ready to go, and we knocked out that interview. And that was a really big moment because the respect he had for me to do that was unbelievable. I’m still thinking about that today, I can’t believe I got that from him. But I earned that. That goes back to what we were talking about. Had I not done just that one question (at Atlanta) that one time, he wouldn’t have done that for me then.”
Sheheen’s relationship with Dale Earnhardt is considered even more special by the television vet because many of his peers had no semblance of one themselves.
“I knew reporters who were afraid to talk to him. I mean, just would not do it. I remember being in production meetings and a producer saying, ‘Hey, we need an interview with Earnhardt today. Who wants to do it?’ And I remember peers of mine going ‘No, not me.’ And once they had that in their head, it was over.”
So many journalists, reporters, and media personalities in the NASCAR garage are revered, and for good reason. But few men or women were able to break through the thick ice that seemed to stand between them and the greatest driver of the day.
It didn’t seem to deter Ralph Sheheen.
