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History in the Making:
DALE EARNHARDT
By Michael Smith
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Let’s face it; there is no good way to start this article.
I’m a student of history who just happens to enjoy NASCAR
racing. I’m certainly not a professional writer and
many more able scribes have attempted to put Daytona’s
tragic finale into perspective, tried to help us fathom
the loss and remind us what a huge force Dale Earnhardt
was in the world.
I cannot really write a history lesson about Dale Earnhardt
because, frankly, he is NASCAR. Sure, the sun rose on
Monday morning after the Daytona 500, and the phones
and lights at NASCAR headquarters continued to function,
but there is a big piece of the puzzle missing and it’s
too soon to begin relegating The Intimidator to a dusty
stack of statistics and verbose superlatives. This is
not to take away from anything I’ve said or written
about other subjects of NASCAR History 101 articles:
Junior Johnson, Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts, they
aren’t moldering has-beens simply because they make
good subject matter for the study of this sport we all
love so much. On the contrary, the icons of our chosen
sport, living or dead, have transcended even their own
existence and they serve to tie us back to stockcar
racing’s origins. Kyle Petty recently bemoaned the fact
that too many newer NASCAR fans know too little about
NASCAR history, its beginning as a regional sport, or
its early superstars. Kyle’s admonition not withstanding,
it’s too early to have to speak that way about Dale
Earnhardt. The pain of loss is too fresh and too real.
So, this isn’t a study of NASCAR history, but a prediction
of what other, better writers will talk about in years
to come whenever the subject is Dale Earnhardt. Forgive
me the odd error or omission and allow me the occasional
editorial comment if you will.
Ralph Dale Earnhardt was born in April of 1951, and
grew up in Kannapolis, North Carolina. From his earliest
days, Dale was surrounded by the sites and sounds of
racing. Dale’s father Ralph was a rough and tumble stockcar
racer in his own right whose circle of acquaintances
included other drivers whose names are now legend: Ned
Jarrett, Bobby Isaac as well as others. Ralph Earnhardt
claimed the Sportsman Division championship when Dale
was five years old.
It is no surprise then that Dale would suffer the racer’s
fever. He studied under his father, learning how to
set up racecars, and how to make them behave on Saturday
night down at the dirt track. The father-son relationship
was strained, as is often the case. Dale’s decision
to drop out of school while in the ninth grade became
an especially sore spot between the two, nearly ruining
their relationship by some accounts.
Through all this, the two continued to work together
on racecars, with the elder Earnhardt building engines
while young Dale handled the chassis work. In his second
year on the local circuit, Dale amassed an incredible
26 victories and notched even more the following season.
Sadly, the success was to be short-lived. When Dale
was just 19 years old, his father died of a heart attack
while working on a racecar. Dale was left with little
direction in his life and not much of a clue where to
turn.
In the years that followed, Dale struggled to survive.
The pantry was often bare and Dale supported a wife
and two children with work installing insulation, doing
mechanic work and anything else that offered the promise
of a paycheck to stave off the poverty that lurked so
close about.
Despite the struggles, the racing bug could not be denied
and before long, Dale had forsaken the work force to
race full time. The result, two divorces and continued
near-starvation. And yet, Winston Cup racing came tantalizingly
close on a number of occasions with one- and two-race
deals driving for owners whose names are virtually meaningless
to new NASCAR fans: Ed Negre, Will Cronkite, Henley
Gray and Johnny Ray.
Dale’s Winston Cup debut came in 1975 when he notched
a single start, and collected $2,425. In 1976, Dale
Earnhardt drove two races, one of which saw the young
driver involved in a frightening crash. On lap 260 of
a 328-lap event in Atlanta, Earnhardt collided with
Dick Brooks and Earnhardt’s car was propelled into a
violent cartwheel crash that produced only minor injuries.
During the next couple of years Dale continued to operate
on the fringes of Winston Cup racing, squirreling away
any spare money to buy parts from the likes of Digard
Racing and Junior Johnson. Additionally, Dale haunted
Rod Osterlund’s race shop, coaxing the general manager
into casual conversation. Dale’s persistence paid dividends
when he was given a car to race as a teammate to Osterlund’s
original driver Dave Marcis. In his first start in an
Osterlund car, Dale notched a fourth place finish and
with five starts for the season he accounted for almost
$21,000 in earnings.
Not surprisingly, Rod Osterlund pegged Dale to drive
full time the following season. In that 1979 season
Dale raced in 27 events, earned 4 pole positions, one
win and a slew of top 10’s on his way to claiming that
year’s Rookie of the Year title. For most folks, that
would have been considered a watershed season, but not
for Dale Earnhardt.
The following year, in a feat that has never been matched,
Dale Earnhardt seized the NASCAR Winston Cup championship,
thus paying back Rod Osterlund for taking a chance on
him. On his way to the first place finish, Dale beat
out the likes of Cale Yarborough, Benny Parsons, Richard
Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison who finished
second through sixth respectively. It is interesting
to note that the top six finishers that season all were
either previous champions, or they would go on to claim
championships later.
Business is business unfortunately. In 1981 Rod Osterlund
sold the team without notice to either crew or driver.
Perhaps disillusioned, Dale quit the team in May of
that year to take a seat vacated by Richard Childress.
In that initial pairing, Earnhardt and Childress showed
some flashes of promise but Childress eventually convinced
Dale to seek greener pastures with another team.
Accordingly, Dale drove two seasons with Bud Moore (1982
and 1983, during which time Ricky Rudd filled the driver’s
seat at Childress racing). In his time with Moore, Dale
Earnhardt garnered three wins, and then in 1984 he returned
to the Childress stable.
Since their reunion in 1984, Earnhardt and Childress
have essentially been a powerhouse dynasty in the sport
of stockcar racing. Earnhardt amassed an additional
six Winston Cup Championships in his time with Richard
Childress, bringing his total to 7, which will forever
tie him with the legendary Richard Petty. But more importantly,
in the course of seasons, Earnhardt somehow became NASCAR
in a way that perhaps only Richard Petty had done before
him. Along the way there were penalties and controversies,
most notably at Bristol where the vege-matic blender
style of bump and pass seemed to suit Earnhardt’s hand’s-on
style of racing, but also at the restrictor plate tracks
like Daytona where Dale topped all current and past
drivers in victories.
Sadly, it is also at Daytona that our story ends, for
now. Dale Earnhardt, “The Intimidator” will continue
to make his mark in this sport that he dominated so
well. Perhaps we will first see the stirrings of his
spirit in the sport when, in response to his death,
new safety innovations (not necessarily the HANS device,
but perhaps something very much like it) move to the
fore and are accepted by all teams and drivers. Joe
Weatherly and Fireball Roberts left us suddenly in 1964
and, partly as a result of their deaths, our sport saw
new safety technology, most notably the window safety
nets and the protective fuel cell.
There is an ugly side of our sport that tends to snatch
life away from those it has seemingly given so much,
and often right before our eyes in an event that “didn’t
look that bad.” There is also an ugly side of our society
that makes people who never followed the sport of stockcar
racing think they can jump on the bandwagon to make
proclamations about our sport and to pass judgment about
how things ought to be. I speak primarily of members
of the media who wouldn’t normally be caught dead at
a racetrack, but who now feel the need to speak at great
length about what is “wrong” with NASCAR.
Dale Earnhardt is gone and that is truly a tragedy.
His fans, and those who respected him will attempt to
make sense of his loss and some will succeed, while
others will never understand. This hasn’t been a history
of Dale Earnhardt. Dale Earnhardt hasn’t made his final
impact on the sport of stockcar racing yet, and I suspect
it will be a very long time before that happens, consequently,
this isn’t “history.” Perhaps what I have here is hagiography,
I’ll let you judge.
copyright 2000. Michael Smith
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copyright 2000. Michael Smith
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NASCAR
RACING DEPARTMENTS
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NASCAR
AUCTIONS
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NASCAR
RACING WEB SITES
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