Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s favorite All-Star Race memories

RELATED: All-Star race schedule | Best All-Star moments in photos Heading into the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared some of his most vivid memories of the race on his "Dale Jr. Download" weekly show on Dirty Mo Radio. As a kid, he recalled watching the race from the condominiums at the track, which opened in 1984. But it wasn't until he was older that he really appreciated what he saw in 1987, when Dale Earnhardt won The Winston with the inaccurately-named but infamous "Pass in the Grass." At the time, he was worried NASCAR was mad at his dad and the drivers were upset with each other. "I was scared. I thought dad was in trouble and they were all fighting," he said of the beating and banging and post-race scuffling between Earnhardt, Geoff Bodine and Bill Elliott. Now Junior recalls that race as one of the greatest things he's ever seen. "Dad really brought his A game," he said in Tuesday's radio show. RELATED: Elliott will never forget Earnhardt's move Of his own experiences in NASCAR's All-Star Race, Junior said 2000 and 2002 stand out. In 2000, he had a strong car, but it got stronger after hitting the wall. Something today the teams understand as skew and rear toe, then was mostly good luck. But the finish was all strategy. In the final 10-lap segment, Junior said crew chief Tony Eury Jr. used some qualifying strategy to run fast in the final 10-lap segment and win the big payday: putting a minimal amount of fuel in the car. "Tony Jr. doesn't fill the car all the way up. ... That put a lot of nose weight in the car, which is something you do in qualifying to really improve the stability and speed of the car. It's something we had done a couple days before that in practice, but he didn't tell me these things. "We go out there and haul tail," Junior said. "I'm sure other teams were smart enough to do that, but that was one thing we would do to give our car an incredible amount of speed for a short time. We had a lighter car, sticker tires and a little more nose weight so we could haul butt." A couple years later, Junior didn't get the win, but he gave it his best -- and worst. Known as a clean racer, Junior confessed to trying and failing to play rough against fellow young guy Ryan Newman in 2002. "I caught Newman on the last lap, hit him and he saved it," Junior said, summing up the scenario. "It knocked him sideways, but I kinda lifted because I thought he was gonna wreck. It was the All-Star Race! If there's one race where you can wreck a guy, this is it. It's a lot of money, probably half a million at this time. "He saved it. No way he ever lifted. ... We should have won that one, it was a fast car." As for the 2017 race (8 p.m. ET Saturday, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Junior's ready to go in the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet -- his last All-Star Race as a full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver.