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Dale's Biography

Dale Earnhardt 1951-2001

Car: #3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevy Monte Carlo
Car owner: Richard Childress
Crew chief: Kevin Hamlin
Hometown: Kannapolis, NC
Birth date: April 29, 1951
Survived by: Wife, Teresa and Children, Kerry, Kelley King, Ralph Dale Jr., Taylor Nicole
Last win: 2000 Winston 500 (Talladega)
Biggest purse: $1,059,805 (1998 Daytona 500)

Career Highlights

Career wins: 76
Career poles: 22
Career top 5 finishes: 268
Career top 10 finishes: 427
Winston Cup championships: 7 (1980, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994)
IROC championships: 4 (1990, 1995, 1999, 2000)
American Driver of the Year: 2 (1987, 1994)
Won record nine races at Talladega Superspeedway
Owns record 34 victories in all forms of racing at Daytona Speedway

'Intimidator' earned respect

Dale Earnhardt acquired the nickname "the Intimidator" for his obsession with winning by any means necessary. He took 76 checkered flags, sixth-most in Winston Cup history.

It was an obsession that earned him more money than any driver in Winston Cup history (over $41 million) and tied him for the most titles in Winston Cup history (7, tied with Richard Petty).

But that obsession also led to his death, as he fought to preserve the win for one of his drivers, Michael Waltrip, in the final turn of his 23rd Daytona 500.

"NASCAR has lost its greatest driver," said NASCAR Chairman of the Board Bill France, "and I personally have lost a great friend."

Earnhardt was born April 29, 1951 in Kannapolis, N.C., the son of NASCAR driver Ralph Earnhardt. His father won the NASCAR Sportsman Championship in 1956 and made 51 Winston Cup starts. Ralph Earnhardt died in 1973, two years before his son joined the Winston Cup circuit.

In 1979 Earnhardt won Rookie-of-the-Year honors, and a year later he became the first NASCAR driver to win Rookie of the Year and the Winston Cup series championship in consecutive years.

In 1984 Earnhardt began a successful 18-year association with Richard Childress Racing that continued into the 2001 season, as Earnhardt won six more Winston Cup championships (1986, '87, '90, '91, '93, '94).

In 1998 after 20 attempts, Earnhardt — who won more races than any driver at Daytona International Speedway — achieved the crowning win of his career with a Daytona 500 victory. Earnhardt added to his legacy in 1998 when NASCAR honored him and his father Ralph as two of the 50 Greatest Drivers in NASCAR history.

Two years later, Earnhardt's son, Dale Jr., joined his father on the Winston Cup circuit and followed in his father's tire tracks as Winston Cup Rookie of the Year. The father experienced a career renaissance — nearly winning a record eighth Winston Cup championship — finishing second, 265 points behind Bobby Labonte.

This year Dale Earnhardts, elder and younger, opened Daytona Speedweeks together as two members of a team in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, an annual sportscar race. The Earnhardts finished fourth overall, proving to any doubters that Dale and son were more than just stock-car drivers.

Intimidating to the end, Earnhardt spun fellow IROC driver and Indy Racing League star Eddie Cheever into the grass after Friday's IROC race, retaliating for a move by Cheever during the race that forced Earnhardt into the grass and cost him a chance at a win.

"IROC racing is supposed to be fun. I didn't think he would do that on purpose. That's why I'm not really mad," Earnhardt said.

"I just wanted to let him know I was a little upset and that I was still around," he said. "He got to do a couple of doughnuts. It didn't hurt anything."

Earnhardt will be remembered for being competitive and having fun on the track but also for being a great friend to other drivers, as he was to Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver Michael Waltrip.

Dale Earnhardt was 49. He is survived by wife Teresa, two sons, Kerry and Dale Jr. and two daughters, Kelley and Taylor Nicole.