Dale Earnhardt

 

  Dale Earnhardt  was born april 25th 19 1951 in Kannapolis, North Carolina . He was an American race car driver that was best known for driving stock cars in Nascars top divisions. His mother was Martha Coleman, and father was Ralph Earnhardt. Ralph was known for being the best short track driver in N.C. and had his only Championship win in 1966 where he raced in the Greensville Speedway in S.C. Ralph did not want Dale to follow in his footsteps when it came to Racing, however Dale would not give up. When he was 17 he even dropped out of High school to pursue his dream. Ralph was a very hard on Dale when it came to teaching him how to race. Ralph ended up dying in his home in 1973 after having a massive heart attack. It took many years after this for Dale to feel like he had proven himself to his father. Throughout Dale’s life he was married 3 times, and had a total of 4 children.
      He began his Winston Cup career in 1975, starting in N.C. at the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the longest race for the World 600. He became a rookie class star around 1979 after competing in 8 races and joining Rod Osterlund Racin. He had very high standings in all races and even won his first race at Bristol. The same year he finished 7th as far as standing points and also won rookie of the year honors. Starting the sophomore season with him was his 20-year old crew chief, Doug Richert. They  began the season winning the Busch Clash and then had many other winnings, even winning the Winston Cup Championship. He still to this day is the only Nascar Driver to win the rookie of the year honors and follow it winning the Winston cup. Earnhardt had a very aggressive driving style, he had several nicknames with the most famous being the intimidator.
   Throughout his career he had several wins, and was rated very high in the point standings.  He ended up winning the Winston Cup Championship several times. In 1987 he won five races and had ten Top 5 and sixteen Top 10 finishes. Then in 1988 he won three times, and had the third highest point standings. In 1991 he scored just 4 wins one being his 5th Winston Cup. Then in 1993 he came so close again to winning the Daytona 500. In 1994, Earnhardt achieved something that he had believed to be impossible he scored his seventh Winston Cup championship. Then he started off the 1995 season by finishing second in the Daytona 500. Also he won the prestigious Brickyard 400 Brickyard which was a win he called the biggest of his career. However, Earnhardt lost the championship to Jeff Gordon by just 34 points. After 20 years of not winning the Daytona 500 Earnhardt finally won in 1998.
In 1999 he was contemplating on retirement, with his age and his son getting into racing it was something that everyone knew was coming. But he decided after some more wins and showing his old self again that he would stay in the game. Earnhardt only had two seasons where he went winless throughout his racing career, the second one being in 1997 where he blacked out in the mt. dew southern 500. In the final race of his life Earnhardt crashed with only one lap left in the Daytona 500. His son Earnhardt jr. was right behind Mark Waltrip on the fouth turn when it happened. At the end of the race it had to be announced that they had lost Earnhardt on Febuary 18th 2001!