Racing Career

Earnhardt began his professional racing career in the Winston Cup (1975) at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. He finished in 22nd that race driving a No. 8 Ed Niegre Dodge Charger. He completed 8 more races and finally won a race at Bristol. He then captured four poles, scored eleven Top 5's and seventeen Top 10's, and finished seventh in the points standings despite missing four races due to a broken collarbone, winning Rookie of the Year Honours. Dale began the season winning the Busch Clash. With wins at Atlanta, Bristol, Nashville, Martinsville, and Charlotte, Earnhardt won his first Winston Cup points championship. To this day, Earnhardt had been the first (and only) driver in all of NASCAR Winston Cup history to follow a Rookie of the Year title with a NASCAR Winston Cup Championship the next season. He was also the third driver in NASCAR history to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cup Series championship. From 1986-1987 he won five races and had ten Top 5's and sixteen Top 10's. Earnhardt successfully defended his championship the following year, going to victory lane eleven times and winning the championship by 489 points over Bill Elliot. In the process, Earnhardt set a NASCAR modern era record of four consecutive wins and won five of the first seven races. In the 1987 season, Earnhardt earned the nickname "The Intimidator" after spinning out Elliott in the final segment of "The Winston." Earnhardt gained a second nickanme— the "Man in Black", owing to the black paint scheme in which the No. 3 car was painted in. He was also called "Darth Vader" more than once because of the black uniform and car. In 1991 Dale had four wins, 1995, 5 wins and before the 1999 season, fans began discussing Earnhardt's age and speculating that with his son, Dale Jr. making his Winston Cup debut, Earnhardt might be contemplating retirement. Earnhardt swept both races for the year at Talladega, leading some to conclude that Earnhardt's talent had become limited to the restrictor plate tracks, which require a unique skill set and an exceptionally powerful racecar to win. But halfway through the year, Earnhardt began to show some of the old spark. In the August race at Michigan, Earnhardt led laps late in the race and nearly pulled off his first win on a non-restrictor-plate track since 1996. In the 2000 season, Earnhardt had a resurgence, which was commonly attributed to neck surgery he underwent to correct a lingering injury from his 1996 Talladega crash. He scored what were considered the two most exciting wins of the year – winning by 0.010 seconds over Bobby Labonte at Atlanta, then gaining seventeen positions in the final four laps to win at Talladega, claiming his only No Bull million dollar bonus along with his record 10th win at the track.