It seems like everyone in the NASCAR community is talking about Figgy Earnhardt, the forgotten third son of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. Of course, Figgy is not a real driver, but how did this start, and how has the NASCAR community latched onto this driver that never was?
The story of Figgy Earnhardt started where all good things on the internet start, the r/NASCAR subreddit.
The post, from user paulfaeces, asked whether anyone remembered Dale Earnhardt’s third son, named Figgy. With the post swearing that they, and a friend, remember this long-lost brother of Kerry and Dale Earnhardt Jr, however, he seemed to be removed from the internet.
The post read:
“I distinctly remember Dale Earnhardt having an additional son named Figgy Earnhardt alongside Dale Jr and Kerry. One of my other friends also swears he remembers this son. I feel like I’m going crazy searching online. I got curious one day a couple weeks ago about what happened to Figgy cause I didn’t remember him going into nascar like Dale’s other sons. I can find no trace of him online. I’m posting this here to see if anyone else remembers Figgy Earnhardt / knows why he seems to have been scrubbed from the internet.”
While this is far from the wildest post ever to hit Reddit, or even the r/NASCAR subreddit, the sheer confusion generated by this lone post has created a NASCAR meme that will likely join the ranks of Nashville’s multiple F1 and NASCAR tracks and “Aggressive Goes Around” in infamy.
Now, it’s well known that Dale had four kids, Kerry, Kelley, Dale Jr., and Taylor, but Figgy, unless this user is absolutely right, has never existed. Nonetheless, despite the post’s odd and otherwise unexplainable existence, the NASCAR community has adopted Figgy Earnahrdt as a true member of the family.
The reaction to Figgy Earnhardt has taken a similar turn to that of the Graggle Simpson meme from a few years ago.
During that time, the internet waxed poetically about a forgotten character from the show named Graggle Simpson, and how they swore they remembered him, even going as far as to edit him into clips and images from the show.
Of course, much like Figgy Earnhardt, Graggle Simpson does not exist and instead was a play on the Mandela Effect, an internet theory where one person or many remember an event or moment in history differently than how it is reported to have happened.
While some fans have brushed off the topic of Figgy Earnhardt, others, including some NASCAR teams, have reinforced the joke, pointing to their own memories of Figgy, and, in some cases, many are creating lore for the fictional fifth Earnhardt child.
The creation of background information for Figgy Earnhardt began quickly, with most fans abandoning the lore that Earnhardt had never taken to racing and building an entire on-track legacy for the driver.
Some fans have used AI pictures or old race day clips to show Figgy competing on track during the early 2000s, around the time his brothers were starting their racing careers.
However, things took a turn when word started to spread that Figgy didn’t just start a race for a random team; he actually drove the No. 81 for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, with his time in NASCAR simply a forgotten start during one of the sport’s most historic periods.
The “pictures” of Figgy Earnhardt are not of a real driver named Figgy Earnhardt, and are instead those of driver Chad McCumbee, during filming for the ESPN TV biopic on Dale Earnhardt titled 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story, where McCumbee portrayed Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Another post that added a massive amount of lore to the story of Figgy came in a post on X form user @neverdome_8, showing Figgy’s No. 81 car as a playable car left within the code of a prototype for EA Sports NASCAR Thunder 2004.
RFK Racing even joined in on the fun, posting that Figgy was their fourth entry into the 2026 Daytona 500.
Other lore has included a sponsorship from Fig Newtons, an inability to grow facial hair, and rumors that he was looking to get back behind the wheel with Kaulig Racing’s free agent, 25 Ram Truck, this summer.
Though some fans have found this joke overused or annoying, the NASCAR community has taken to it in rare form. This means that, despite their best wishes, the fictional Figgy Earnahrdt isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Let us know your thoughts on this! Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.
