Dale Earnhardt

Dale Earnhardt grew up in automotive racing. Ever since he was a kid that is what his family did, and now his family carries on that legacy.

Dale Earnhardt grew up in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a textile mill town. His father, Ralph Earnhardt, was known as "Iron heart" on the short-track racing circuit, and he taught Dale how to drive stock cars and work with engines. His father had converted a barn behind the family home into a garage, and he was well known for his skill with engines. Earnhardt's earliest memory is of watching his father race. Dale dropped out of high school after the eighth grade because he tried ninth grade twice and just couldn't do it. After he dropped out, Dale worked odd jobs, drove dirt tracks, and also argued with his father, which wanted him to complete high school. Dale became most famous with his black Monte Carlo with a dominate # 3 in white on it, but his first dirt track car was a 1956 hot-pink ford Sedan, which his neighbors gave to him, David and Ray Oliver. His father Ralph had built the engine, and some other friends, Frank and Wayne Dayvault and their cousin Gregg, tuned it. They intended to paint the car avocado green, but a paint mishap resulted in the car being pink. They could not afford to repaint it, and Dale raced the pink car on dirt tracks around Charlotte, North Carolina. Dale married for the first time at 17, and at age 18 had a son, Kerry. Dale divorced his first wife at 19 and married a second time to Brenda. This marriage would last five years before he divorced again. Dale had two children with his second wife, a daughter, Kelley, and a son, Dale Jr., who would both followed him into racing. While Dale was at the age of twenty two his father died from a heart attack. Earnhardt said, "He was against me dropping out of school to go racing. But he was the biggest influence on my life." Dale's mother gave his fathers racecars, and he also inherited the business side of racing that came with them. Dale's father helped him out with racing by helping him build motors, and giving him used tires left. When his father died it left Dale in a situation where he had to make it on his own. Dale once said, " I'd give up everything I got if he were still alive, but I don't think I'd be where I am if he hadn't died."

Dale's first break in to racing was in 1975 when he drove in his first Winston cup race, coming in at 22nd. For Dale, unlike many other drivers, driving was not a hobby, it was almost his only means of support. If he was short of money, he borrowed from other drivers, hoping that he would win the next Sunday's race so he could pay them back on Monday. Dale was a fearless driver, but he was also astonishingly precise. Dale's first major break was in 1978, when he replaced another driver in the world cup 600, in Charlotte N.C. where he placed 7th one race, that is when he caught the eye of a Winston cup car owner. That owners name was Rod Osterlund and wasn't happy with his current driver. Rod replaced his current driver with Dale for the next-to-last race of that season, and Dale drove with his characteristic fearlessness, refusing to be intimidated by the experienced drivers he was competing against. This won him a full-time position driving