Bodine would later say, in a 2015 article with the Racing Experts website, that he and Earnhardt got along well in their early racing days. They had dinner parties and their children played with each other. However, when both drivers joined the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, their relationship changed, and they grew distant from each other. By the time the rivalry had begun, both drivers were at the prime of their careers, which partly contributed to the heated incidents with each other. Although the rivalry was put to an end by the NASCAR dinner meeting, both teams, and Bodine still have a difference of opinion on who was mostly responsible for it.(6)(7)