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"THE EARLY YEARS"

This is one of Dale's very first race cars. It was a 1956 Ford owned by David Oliver. The engines were built by Dale's dad Ralph Earnhardt. Dale says, "the car had an apricot metal flake roof and the rest of the car was always pink". When asked about the odd color of the car Dale says, "I was trying to break into racing. I wanted to race, I didn't care what color it was. It was somebody else's car, so I just drove it. I didn't have much say in the color". Recently the car was made into a diecast collectible and has been sold to thousands of NASCAR� fans.

Dale's father Ralph Earnhardt

When Dale Earnhardt is asked why he got into racing Stock cars, his reply is, "I grew up around it. My dad raced, so it was the natural thing to do". Watching his father Ralph race Stock car events through out the Southeast fueled young Dale's passion for the sport. His father was a successful race car driver who won the NASCAR Sportsman championship in 1956. He is rated by many as the best driver ever on dirt tracks, which in the 1950s and 1960s were part of the tour that evolved into the NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division.

Dale Earnhardt's success generally has been traced to his fiercely competitive nature and intensity. These characteristics, in turn, can be traced to heredity. His father had the same qualities. Sadly, Ralph died of heart failure while working on a car in 1973, he was 45 years of age. The person Dale most admires is his father, Ralph Earnhardt.

Dale's early racing career

Dale says, "I can't remember anything but racing. I didn't want to go to high school. I wanted to be racing." He regrets that he didn't graduate but he would compensate for this later in life by making sure his children had a good education. Dale worked at various jobs. Welding, mounting tires, working for an insulation company and repairing tanker trucks. At night and the weekends he pursued his racing career, either working on his car or racing it. Oftentimes he would have to borrow money to buy parts and pieces to run on the weekends, hoping to win enough to pay back the bank on Monday.

Earnhardt believes he wouldn't have gotten where he is today if it weren't for the influence of his father. He brought his dad's "Intimidating" driving style into Winston Cup and has been burning up the tracks ever since.

He moved up to Winston Cup in 1975, making occasional starts while pirsuing his short-track career. In 1979, he hooked up with owner Rod Osterlund and began a full-time major league career which would lead to that season's Rookie of The Year title and his first victory at Bristol, Tennessee. The 1980 campaign proved the prior season and title was no fluke as Earnhardt won five times and took the first of his seven Winston Cup championships. Since, he has won more than five dozen times in his relentless give-no-quarter driving style, learned from his days of watching his father and years of battling on short tracks.