Early life
Dale Earnhardt was the son of race car driver Ralph Earnhardt, who participated in the formative years of the NASCAR circuit's Grand National Division (the precursor to today's NEXTEL Cup Series). Although the elder Earnhardt was a successful racer, he kept his day job at a cotton mill in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Dale quit school at the age of 16 to pursue racing fulltime. He also married his first wife at a very young age: she gave birth to his eldest child, his son Kerry.
Ralph Earnhardt died of a heart attack in his home in 1973. His father's death affected Dale deeply and it would take many years before his success in racing would make him feel as though he had "proven" himself to his father's memory.
NASCAR career
Dale Earnhardt began his Winston Cup career in 1975, making his very first start at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the longest race on the Cup circuit, the World 600. Earnhardt drove an Ed Negre car and finished 22nd in the race. Earnhardt would compete in 8 more races until, at the age of 28, got his first full time ride with Rod Osterlund Racing.
1970s
1979 Rookie of the Year Earnhardt started the 1979 season with car owner Rod Osterlund, who had fielded a full time team for Dave Marcis with 1 win and several top 10 point finishes. They ran well at Daytona and Earnhardt notched his very first win on April 1st, 1979, at the Bristol Motor Speedway dueling NASCAR legends Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison. Earnhardt ran well the rest of the year, despite missing 4 races due to a broken collarbone suffered at Pocono. He finished the year with 1 win, 11 Top 5's, 17 Top 10's, 4 poles, and a 7th place points finish.
The 1979 Rookie of the Year class was one of the strongest in NASCAR history. It included three legends: Earnhardt, Harry Gant, and Terry Labonte; all three whom later were named to NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers list. The battle for the Rookie Award went down to the last race.
1980s
1980 Championship The dawning of a new decade in Winston Cup racing saw Earnhardt win the Busch Clash (later renamed the Budweiser Shootout), a non-points race for all of the years previous pole winners. Earnhardt would get his first points racing win of the year at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, and would go on to win at Bristol, Nashville, Martinsville, and Charlotte, with young Doug Richert as crew chief. Earnhardt went on to win his first championship, becoming the first and only driver to win the title the year after winning rookie of the year.
1981 Osterlund sold his team to J.D. Stacy in mid-1981. Earnhardt competed in four races with Stacy before he decided to finish off the season with Richard Childress. Earnhardt went winless in 1981 and finished 7th in the point standings.
Childress convinced Dale that he didn't have enough resources for the defending champion, so Earnhart joined legendary car owner Bud Moore for the 1982 season. Earnhardt got back to victory lane at Darlington Raceway and ended a 39 race losing streak. However, that would be the only win of the year as engine failures in his Ford Thunderbird would plague their season as the team scored 15 DNF's (Did Not Finish). Earnhardt would finish twelfth in the point standings, the lowest finishing position in his career (he would finish twelfth again in 1992). In 1983 Earnhardt won the first of his thirteen Twin 125 qualifiers for the Daytona 500 in his career. While he didn't win the Daytona 500, he did notch wins at Nashville and Talladega. He finished eighth in the point standings, but unreliable engines convinced Dale that Richard Childress' Chevrolets could not be worse than driving Moore's Fords.
In 1984 Earnhardt returned to Richard Childress Racing. Childress had built up his team through help from Junior Johnson. Earnhardt would finish the season with two wins, one each at Talladega and Atlanta. Earnhardt led at the halfway mark in the season before ending up fourth in final season points standings. In 1985, Earnhardt won four races, all at short tracks, including one at Richmond, two at Bristol, and one at Martinsville.
1986 Championship Earnhardt again started the season by winning the Busch Clash and a Twin 125 qualifier. Earnhardt beat Darrell Waltrip for the title for Earnhardt's second in his career title. Childress received his first owner's championship. Earnhardt won five races, including wins at North Wilkesboro, Atlanta, Darlington, and two wins at Charlotte.
1987 Championship Earnhardt won eleven races during the 1987 season: Rockingham, Richmond, Darlington, North Wilkesboro, Bristol, Martinsville, Charlotte, Michigan, Pocono, Bristol, Darlington, and Richmond. The team set a modern era record of 4 consecutive wins and won 5 of the first 7 races. It might have been 6 of 7 had the team not ran out of gas while leading with three laps to go at the Daytona 500. Earnhardt also earned his nickname "The Intimidator" during the The Winston at Charlotte by intimidating Bill Elliott in the final segment before scoring his first of three career wins in the event. The final 10-lap segment featured Earnhardt's famous "pass in the grass". Earnhardt grabbed the points lead with his early success, and stretched the lead at one point to greater than 600 points over Bill Elliott before beating "Million Dollar Bill" by 288 points. Long-term sponsor Wrangler left Earnhardt's team after the season.
1988 Earnhardt began the 1988 season with new primary sponsor GM Goodwrench. GM Goodwrench insisted on a black paint scheme which would become Earnhardt's signature, so much so that it inspired a nickname, "The Man In Black." Earnhardt scored three wins at Martinsville, Darlington, and Bristol. He finished third in the final points standings behind Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace.
1989 He scored five wins: two at Dover, with one each at North Wilkesboro, Darlington, and Atlanta. Earnhardt was racing against Ricky Rudd for the win at North Wilkesboro with a handful of laps to go. Earnhardt went for the win. The drivers collided and both of them spun, giving the win to Geoff Bodine. Earnhardt finished twelfth instead of second, which eventually was his downfall (he finished second to Rusty Wallace by 12 points).
1990s
1990 Earnhardt couldn't wait to get back behind the wheel of the #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Lumina in 1990. He had something to prove after letting the 1989 Winston Cup title slip out of his grasp. The season started with another heartbreak. Earnhardt had won the outside pole for the Superbowl of Stock Car Racing, the Daytona 500, and had dominated the entire speedweeks, winning the Busch Clash and the Gatorade Twin 125's, a race which he would then win nine more in succession. On the big day, he had a 4 second lead, he had almost lapped the field, when the day's final caution came out with a handful of laps to go. When the green flag came out, Earnhardt was leading unknown driver Derrike Cope and was expected to take it home from there. But on the last lap, Earnhardt would have another run-in with his famous bad luck. While coming out of turn 3, Earnhardt would run over a piece of debris, cutting his tire down and giving the lead to Cope, who went on to win the race while Earnhardt finished 5th. This could have crushed a lesser team, but RCR used it as a motivational tool. They took the tire that cost them the win and mounted it to the wall of their shop to remind their team of what had happened. The results led to a 9-win season and a 4th Winston Cup title for Earnhardt, beating out Mark Martin by just 26 points for the honor. Other notable wins for Earnhardt in 1990 were the Southern 500, The Winston, and the Winston 500.
1991 New rules were implemented in 1991 as a result of a fatal crash on pit road where Bill Elliott lost a tire changer in November 1990, further making pit stops more crucial. That did not affect the Childress team as Earnhardt scored his 5th Winston Cup championship. In his previous championship seasons, Earnahrdt had never scored less than 5 wins, but in 1991, Dale would score just 4 wins, but it would be more than enough as he would take the title by 195 points over Ricky Rudd. One of the biggest highlights of the season for Earnhardt was scoring the win at North Wilkesboro, stealing the thunder of Harry Gant, who had tied Earnhardt's mark of 4 consecutive wins and was going for a 5th but lost the brakes late in the run, giving Earnhardt the chance he needed to take the win and end Gant's streak.
Earnhardt also scored a convincing win in the 1991 Busch Clash, where the race was split into two ten-lap segments. Earnhardt won the first segment after starting sixth, and went to the lead in less than two laps. The win meant he started from 14th (last) in the inverted field for the second segment, and within two laps had moved to the front.
1992 After back-to-back titles for the 2nd time in his career, Dale Earnhardt was determined to take advantage of the opportunity to make it 3 in a row, but again, it wasn't to be. Ford's new engine and body package for their Thunderbird dominated, winning 13 consecutive races from the end of the 1991 season into the first nine races of 1992, as Earnhardt's lone win of the season came at Charlotte in the prestigious Coca-Cola 600, ending the 13-race win streak for the Ford teams, which dominated the season. The season was a loss to the RCR team, like the other General Motors teams. Dale would finish a career-low 12th in the points for the 2nd time in his career, and the only time he had been that low since coming to RCR. Longtime RCR crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine left at the end of the year, citing burnout and wanting to pursue his own racing dream. Earnhardt vowed to go back to the basics, and regroup with Andy Petree as the crew chief in 1993, while the other RCR members stayed.
Hiring Petree turned out to be a good move, as the #3 GM Goodwrench Chevy was back up front in 1993. Earnhardt once again came close to a win at the Daytona 500, dominating throughout speedweeks before finishing 2nd to Dale Jarrett on a last-lap pass. Earnhardt would score 6 wins en route to his 6th Winston Cup title, including wins in prestigious races as the Coca-Cola 600, the Winston All-Star race and the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. Earnhardt would defeat his friend and rival Rusty Wallace for the championship by just 80 points and set about to repeating in 1994.
Richard Petty had been the only driver in NASCAR history to win 7 championships in NASCAR's top division, a record no one thought would be broken. In 1994, Earnhardt showed them they were wrong. Once again, Earnhardt was a model of consistency, scoring only 4 wins, but winning the title by over 400 points over Mark Martin. As Earnhardt scored his 4th title in 5 years, he seemed poised to break the record for championships and make his own mark in the history books.
Earnhardt started off the 1995 season his challenge for a record 8th Winston Cup championship the same way he always did-coming up one spot short in the Daytona 500. He finished 2nd after again dominating Speedweeks, this time to Sterling Marlin. Earnhardt wouldn't let this deter him from his goal, though. He would win 5 races in 1995, including his first career road course victory at Sears Point and the prestigious Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a win he called the biggest of his career at the time. But in the end, he once again came up short of the historic 3-peat, losing the title to Jeff Gordon by just 34 points.
When Earnhardt teamed up with Wrangler Jeans to sponsor him in the 80s, their slogan for him was that he was "One Tough Customer". In 1996, he showed us why. Earnhardt had his now-legendary Daytona luck, winning the pole for the Daytona 500 and dominating speedweeks again before finishing 2nd to Dale Jarrett for a 2nd time. Earnhardt won early in the year, scoring back to back victories at Rockingham and Atlanta. Coming to Talladega Superspeedway, he was leading the points looking for his 8th title despite the departure of Andy Petree as crew chief. David Smith had taken the reigns of the crew chief role in 1996. A horrific accident at the track appeared to have ended his season early, let alone his title hopes. But in true Earnhardt fashion, Dale refused to sit out and raced every weekend. He had to let Mike Skinner (NASCAR) take the wheel the first week after the accident at Indianapolis, but Earnhardt didn't like the taste of that and the following weekend at Watkins Glen he won the pole and refused to get out of the car, dominating most of the race before fatigue from his injuries caused him to slow down in which he wound up 6th. Earnhardt would not win again in 1996, but he still finished 4th in the standings behind Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett. David Smith would leave as crew chief of the #3 team at the end of the year to become team manager of the new #31 Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse RCR entry of Mike Skinner (NASCAR) as a teammate to Earnhardt and Larry McReynolds would replace him.
In 1997, the black #3 was shut out of victory lane for only the 2nd time in Earnhardt's career. The lone win of the season came during speedweeks at Daytona in the Twin 125-mile qualifying race, his record 8th straight win in the event. Once again in the hunt for the Daytona 500 with 10 laps to go, Earnhardt was taken out of the Daytona 500 by a late crash which sent his car flipping down the backstretch. Earnhardt would hit the low point of the year when he would black out early in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 in Darlington, causing him to hit the wall and scaring onlookers and fans. He would go to the hospital and be cleared to race, but had no idea what caused the blackout. Despite no wins (all of Chevrolet's wins were by Hendrick Motorsports -- Ford won all other races in 1997, except for the last race, won by a Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac), the RCR team finished the season 5th in the final standings, with no DNF's.
1998 Finally! The first words out of everyone's mouth when Dale Earnhardt finally scored the victory in the only jewel left from his crown. After 20 years of disappointment in the Daytona 500 and dominating races only to fall to the wayside late in the going, Earnhardt finally held on and did not let go. He started Speedweeks like any other, winning his Twin 125-mile qualifier race, then fielded questions from the media about his inability to win the race thus far. On race day, Dale showed himself to be one of the contenders early, leading for long periods of time. By halfway, though, it seemed that Jeff Gordon had the upper hand. But by lap 138, Earnhardt had taken the lead, and thanks to a push by teammate Mike Skinner (NASCAR) on lap 170 on the restart, he would not lose it. Earnhardt beat Bobby Labonte to the line to take the checkers in the race. There was a wild celebration afterward, the likes of which few races have seen since. Every crew member of every team lined pit road to slap his hand as he made his way to the coveted Victory Lane and the Harley Earl Trophy. The Intimidator's words in victory lane said it all, "I have had a lot of great fans and people behind me all through the years and I just can't thank them enough. The Daytona 500 is over. And we won it! We won it!" Unfortunately, the rest of the season would not go as well for Earnhardt. He slipped to 12th in the standings by the season's halfway mark, and Richard Childress decided to make a crew chief swap, taking Mike Skinner (NASCAR)'s crew chief Kevin Hamlin and putting him with Earnhardt while giving Skinner's team Larry McReynolds. The results seemed to improve, as Earnhardt climbed back to 8th in the final standings.
1999 was the year that served notice that The Intimidator had not gone into that good night. Everyone had started talking about Earnhardt's age and thinking that with his son Dale Jr. getting into racing that Earnhardt might start thinking retirement. Dale set out to prove them wrong, and did so with ease, scoring the sweep at Talladega Superspeedway. But this season was highlighted by a much more controversial moment. At the August Bristol Night race, Earnhardt found himself in contention to win his first short track race since his win at Martinsville in 1995. Earnhardt had not won a non-restrictor-plate race since 1996, and people doubted his ability to win on the short tracks, thinking he had mellowed and wasn't going to beat and bang anymore. When a caution came out with 15 laps to go, leader Terry Labonte got hit from behind by the lapped car of Darrell Waltrip. His spin put Earnhardt in the lead with 5 cars between he and Labonte with 5 laps to go. Labonte had fresher tires and Earnhardt did not. Labonte caught Earnhardt coming to the white flag and hit him 3 times to move him out of the way. Earnhardt returned the favor, but unlike Earnhardt, Labonte could not hold on. He spun, and Dale collected the win and the boos from the multitudes at the track. Earnhardt would finish 7th in the standings that year, but more importantly looked like a contender again.
2000s
Everyone was expecting 2000 to be the Year of Earnhardt, but for the junior Earnhardt instead of Dale Sr. Dale's son had moved up to the Winston Cup Series under Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and was competing for Rookie of the Year, and most expected the younger Earnhardt to outrun his father. Once again, Earnhardt proved his detractors wrong, as he scored the 2 most exciting wins of the year, winning by a foot at Atlanta Motor Speedway over Bobby Labonte, then winning at Talladega Superspeedway after coming back from being 18th with only 5 laps to go to score his first No Bull 5 million dollar bonus. On the strength of these performances, Earnhardt took the No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo to 2nd in the standings, proving to everyone that he was by no means done racing yet. He also won the battle of the Earnhardts, as Dale Jr. scored 2 wins also, but finished only 16th in the standings.
With the season he had last year, people knew he could still get the job done. When the Daytona 500 rolled around, it seemed different. Every Speedweeks for over a decade, Dale had won at least one race before the Daytona 500. This year, Earnhardt appeared to have the qualifying race in hand but was passed by Sterling Marlin on the last lap. He finished 2nd to budding star Tony Stewart in the Bud Shootout. When the Daytona 500 started, Earnhardt appeared to have a good car, but not a dominant one. A big crash inside 25 laps to go eliminated a great deal of competition, though, and it appeared that either Earnhardt, his son or DEI's newest hire, Michael Waltrip, would win the race. Earnhardt appeared content to ride behind the two, seemingly running interference for them. When they came to the final lap, Sterling Marlin got a run under Earnhardt and tapped him in the left quarterpanel, sending him into Ken Schrader, which in turn sent him into the wall headfirst. As his friend Michael and his son Dale Jr. went on to finish 1-2 in the Daytona 500, Dale's life came to an abrupt end. The rest of the season seemed to be a tribute to the greatest to drive a stock car, with his replacement, Kevin Harvick, driving a white #29 GM Goodwrench Chevy, scoring 2 wins and a 9th-place effort in the standings en route to rookie of the year. Steve Park, another DEI teammember, won at Rockingham and appeared to have a top 10 finish in the standings secured before a serious head injury ended his season early. Dale Jr. scored 3 wins, including emotional wins at Daytona and Talladega, en route to an 8th-place finish in the standings. Michael Waltrip would push his teammate and friend Dale Jr. to his win in the first race back at Daytona in July of 2001 for a DEI 1-2 finish at the track, creating a storybook ending to a difficult year.
Dale drove the #3 car for most of his career, spanning the early 1980s until his unfortunate passing in 2001. As of 2006, no other Nextel Cup race car has used this number, though NASCAR has not officially retired it.