FANTASY NASCAR Racin

was an American race car driver, best known for his career driving stock cars in NASCAR's top division. Earnhardt is notable for his success in the NASCAR Cup Series, winning seventy-six races (including one Daytona 500 victory in 1998). Earnhardt's seven championships are tied for most all-time with Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson. His aggressive driving style led to controversy and earned him the nickname "The Intimidator". Earnhardt was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, on April 29, 1951, to Martha Coleman and Ralph Earnhardt, who was then one of the best short-track drivers in North Carolina. Ralph won his one and only NASCAR Sportsman Championship in 1956 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. Although Ralph did not want his son to follow in his footsteps, Earnhardt would not be persuaded to give up his dream of racing, dropping out of school to race. Ralph was a hard teacher for Earnhardt, and after Ralph died of a heart attack at his home in 1973, it took many years before Earnhardt felt as though he had finally "proven" himself to his father. Earnhardt began his NASCAR Cup career in 1975, making his first start at the Charlotte Motor

Speedway in North Carolina in the longest race on the Cup circuit, the World 600. Earnhardt drove an Ed Negre RPM Dodge Charger(#8) started 33rd and dove his way up to 22nd at the finish, one place ahead of his future car owner, Richard Childress. In 1976 Earnhardt would make his second Cup start in the #30 Army sponsored car; a paint job that Josh wise would run in 2016 at Darlington in the tracks annual "throw back paint scheme" weekend. Earnhardt competed in 8 more races until 1979, when he joined Rod Osterlund Racing and would drive the #2 car, in a season that included a rookie class of future stars – Earnhardt, Harry Gant and Terry Labonte. In his rookie season, Earnhardt won one race at Bristol wheeling his Osterland owned Chevy, captured four poles, had 11 Top 5

finishes, 17 Top 10 finishes, and finished 7th in the points standings, in spite of missing four races because of a broken collarbone, winning Rookie of the Year honors. His win at Bristol would see him start in seventh position but pole sitter Buddy Baker would dominate the race for the first 138 laps but have issues and crash out. At that time Earnhardt was there to take the lead; but after only a couple laps Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough would muscle their way by. Darrell Waltrip stepped up to take the lead for 70 laps before Allison would take the point for the next 40 circuits. Earnhardt's car came to life and he would take the lead from Allison and lead the next 134 circuits.

Waltrip would take away the lead on lap 389; but Earnhardt would work his way by Waltrip 27 laps from the end and hold on to get the win by three seconds over Bobby Allison. In his sophomore season, Earnhardt won his first Cup championship winning five races at the controls of the #2 Mike Curb sponsored car. 1981 saw him go winless and at the end of the season, and he left Osterland to go drive the #15 Bud Moore owned; Wrangler sponsored Ford. He won in his sixth start with Moore beating out Cale Yarborough to post a win at Darlington. About mid-season he had a hard crash at Pocono in July. He crashed hard into the outside wall and flipped his car. He would break his leg; but never tell NASCAR and continue to race the rest of the season. The pairing produced another pair of wins in 1983. 1984 saw him once again go to another team as he would leave Moore and go to drive for Richard Childress; the team he

would remain with until his untimely death. That first season the due produced a pair of wins, and added an additional four wins the following season. 1986 saw Earnhardt claim his second Cup Championship and the first for car owner Richard Childress. Earnhardt dominated the season beating Darrell Waltrip by over 280 points. 1987 he posted 11 wins and again claimed the Championship. He had one stretch where he won four races in a row; and then later in the season won an additional three in a row including the Southern 500. 1988 saw Earnhardt win three times but could finish no better than third in the points behind a strong Bill Elliott machine who won the Cup title that year. The next year Rusty Wallace would be the man to beat; and Earnhardt would claim five wins; including a second southern 500; but come up just short in the championship chase, finishing second. In 1990 Earnhardt and Childress returned to Championship form. The duo visited victory lane nine times and edged out Mark Martin by a scant 26 points. He began to show his dominance on the restrictor plate tracks of Daytona and Talladega winning the July race at Daytona and both Talladega races. Earnhardt always joked he "could sniff the air"; and now

with all the advancements and understandings of aerodynamics of racing it is figured that he was able to feel the side forces and caused by the other cars and understand how side drafting worked. Once again he won back to back titles added another Championship in 1991. Earnhardt had an off year in 1992 winning only once. Earnhardt rebounded in 1993 to claim his sixth Cup Championship beating out Rusty Wallace; again winning two of the four restrictor plate races. In 1994, Earnhardt scored his seventh Cup championship, tying the legendary Richard Petty. Even thought Earnhardt only won four times, he beat out Mark Martin by almost 450 points to win the Championship on the strength of 20 Top 5 finishes. Since that time Jimmie Johnson has also joined this duo with seven Cup Championships. 1995 saw Earnhardt win

five times but not be able to win the Championship finishing second in points; beaten out by an up and coming Jeff Gordon. In 1996, at Talladega, he was in the points lead and looking for his eighth title despite the departure of crew chief Andy Petree. Late in the race, Ernie Irvan lost control of his #28 Havoline Ford Thunderbird, igniting a frightening crash that saw Earnhardt's #3 Chevrolet hit the tri-oval wall nearly head-on at almost 200 miles per hour. After hitting the wall, Earnhardt's car flipped and slid across the track, in front of race-traffic. His car was hit in the roof and windshield, and the accident led NASCAR to mandate the "Earnhardt Bar", a metal brace located in the center of the windshield that reinforces the roof in case of

a similarcrash. 1997 would see Earnhardt go win-less; the first year since 1981 he hadn't posted at least one win; and only the second full time season he was win-less in his career. 1998 he got back into victory lane finally claiming that elusive win in the Daytona 500. Earnhardt had won about everything there was to win at Daytona up until this time. He had claimed seven Xfinity series wins, won six times in the IROC series; claimed a win in the Daytona Qualifying races on 12 occasions (including 10 years in a row); and won the Busch Clash six times. Every member of every rival team came out on pit road to congratulate Dale Sr. on finally accomplishing the hard won task as he came to pit road headed for victory lane. This would be

the only win for him this season. Earnhardt would only post five top 5 finishes this season as he finished a disappointing eighth in the points. 1999 wasn't much better as he won on three occasions, but would end up seventh in the points standings. He did claim two of his wins at Talladega. He won twice in 2000 and his final win came at (of course) Talladega. The final green flag flew with 15 laps to go and with five laps to go Earnhardt found himself sitting buried in the field in 18th place. Good friend Kenny Wallace hooked up with Earnhardt and pushed him into the lead just as the field got the two to go signal. Wallace would hang right with Earnhardt the final two laps and push him to the win. On the morning of the 2001

Daytona 500, Earnhardt appeared confident and relaxed. When the race started, Earnhardt showed early promise, leading the race and maintaining a front-running position for most of the event. Heading into Turn 3 on the last lap, Earnhardt was racing three wide with Sterlin Marlin to his left and Ken Schrader to his right. For reasons unknown, Earnhardt's car veered down. The left rear quarter of Earnhardt's car made slight contact with Marlin's front bumper, and then turned sharply up the track toward the outside retaining wall. Although it briefly looked as though Earnhardt was going to avoid hitting the wall, the #3 car collided with the #36 Pontiac driven by Ken Schrader. Schrader's car hit Earnhardt's car just behind the passenger door, causing Earnhardt's car to snap. Both cars hit the wall nose-first. Earnhardt's car hit at a critical angle at nearly 160 miles per hour. The right-rear wheel assembly broke off the car on impact. The passenger window broke out of the car. The hood pins severed and

the hood opened, slamming back against the windshield. Earnhardt’s car slid off the track's steep banking, onto the flat apron along with Schrader's. Schrader got out of his car to go check on his friend and immediately started motioning frantically for assistance. Despite heavy damage to the car, to outside observers, the crash looked relatively minor compared to other NASCAR related crashes. Earnhardt was taken to Halifax Medical Center by ambulance after being removed from his car. Hours later, at a press conference, NASCAR President Mike Helton made the formal announcement to the world saying, "Undoubtedly this is one of the toughest announcements I've personally had to make. But...after the accident in Turn 4 at the end of the Daytona 500, uh, we've lost Dale Earnhardt". Earnhardt's death was the catalyst for a number of changes in NASCAR. NASCAR also made the use of the HANS device mandatory in all cars following Earnhardt's death. Until that point, use of the HANS device was optional, at the discretion of the drivers or teams. Earnhardt had refused to wear the device, arguing it was uncomfortable and ineffective. He was not using a HANS device on the day he died of a Basilar skull fracture. The HANS device is designed to prevent such injuries. Earnhardt drove the #3 car for most of his career, spanning the early 1980s until his death in 2001. Although he had other sponsors during his career, his #3 is associated in fans' minds with his last sponsor, GM Goodwrench, and his last color scheme — a predominantly black car with bold red and silver trim. For the first three weeks after Earnhardt's death, on-track incidents brought out the caution flag on lap three. Three weeks after Earnhardt's death, Kevin Harvick scored his first career Cup win at Atlanta driving a car that had been prepared for

Earnhardt. Tributes to Earnhardt were put up in a couple notable places. One was outside Daytona International Speedway; while another went up in his home town of Kannapolis NC known as Dale Earnhardt Tribute Plaza. The centerpiece of the plaza is a nine-foot, 900-pound bronze statue of Dale as his hometown knew him — dressed in Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots and a creased, short-sleeve, button-down shirt with sunglasses in the pocket. Sporting his famous grin, his gaze is directed toward Idiot Circle, Dale’s favorite hangout during his teen years. It has several symbolic elements — benches in groups of three, an oval layout and plans to have 76 granite sections, one for each of his Winston Cup wins.For his career Earnhardt ran in 676 Cup races winning 76 times; and claimed seven Cup Championships. He also ran 136 Xfinity series events and won 21 times. He had 11 IROC series wins, 12 Daytona qualifying wins and three times claimed victory in NASCAR's All Star race. He won ten times at Talladega; and twice at Daytona in the July race. He won the Daytona 500 in 1998; Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in 1995; World 600 in 1986, 1992, and 1993; and also won the Southern 500 in 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1993. Some info from WikiPedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

RALPH DALE EARNHARDT SR - 04/29/1951 - 02/18/2001