Earnhardt has cameo in feature film
The Earnhardt Connection
Welcome, North Carolina (July 23, 1998)

Dale Earnhardt is known for his winning skills on the race track. Soon, he will be known for his skills in the motion picture business, when the film BASEketball premiers on July 31.

BASEketball is a film produced and directed by David Zucker. Zucker gained notoriety with his comedy films, Airplane! and Naked Gun. BASEketball follows Zucker's previous films and is a comedy about professional sports.

The movie has a host of celebrities making cameo appearances, including Earnhardt, Bob Costas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Other celebrities featured in the film include Yasmine Bleeth of Baywatch fame and Jenny McCarthy.

In his role as Dale Earnhardt, he is featured as a washed up race car driver who is now driving a taxi cab for a living. Earnhardt drives Bleeth and a dozen children through the streets of Los Angeles. They filmed his scene the week after the "Intimidator" won the Daytona 500 in February.

"It was fun!" Earnhardt said. "When we first arrived on the set, the crew stopped what they were doing and started applauding and congratulating me on the win. I guess they all got together on Sunday and watched the race. It was very flattering.

"I'm a movie watcher, and enjoyed David Zucker's other films, so it was nice to meet him.  Yasmine was wonderful to work with, she is slowly becoming a race fan.   Her boyfriend follows NASCAR, and had her watch the Daytona race, so she knew what it was all about when we got there.  Since then she has been to a race and hopefully plans on coming to a couple more."

Earnhardt doesn't plan on attending the premier this week.  He'll be concentrating on winning another big race -- the Brickyard 400.