First win was no April 1 joke

The outcome of the race was so significant that I felt compelled to phone my cohorts in The Charlotte Observer sports department the moment the checkered flag waved.

They needed to be alerted to the story I was about to file, because it was BIG in our circulation area.

“Dale Earnhardt just won the race up here at Bristol!” I told the fellow who took my call. “Sure he did,” the guy replied somewhat sarcastically. “April Fool!  You think I’m going to fall for that?”

Indeed, it was April 1, 1979. But I wasn’t kidding.

Earnhardt, who had built a big following over the past few years with his hard-charger driving style on short tracks around the Carolinas Piedmont, had won on the NASCAR big-time tour in just his 16th Winston Cup Series start.

The victory came in the Southeastern 500 at the track in Tennessee then known as Bristol International Raceway. The triumph was no fluke.

Following Dale, then 27, to the finish line that spring Sabbath 30 years ago were savvy veterans Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Richard Petty and Benny Parsons, each of whom had either won championships or were destined to take titles.  

Earnhardt, back on the track first from the pits after a final caution period, prevailed in a 23-lap dash to the finish.  He beat runnerup Allison by 3 seconds. The Winston Cup rookie led 164 of the 500 laps on the .533-mile track, more than any driver. He averaged 91.033 mph.

Earnhardt, understandably, was ecstatic. “I probably won’t believe this until in the morning!” he said.

Then, Earnhardt thought of his late father, the legendary short track champion Ralph Earnhardt, who had died of a heart attack at age 43 in 1973. “I know that somewhere there’s a fellow that’s got a big smile and he is mighty, mighty proud,” said Dale, his eyes moistening a big.  “He’s even more happy than I am, if that’s possible.”

The younger Earnhardt had learned the racing “trade” while watching and helping at his father’s backyard shop on Sedan Avenue in the textile town of Kannapolis, N.C. Sitting alongside Dale during the winner’s interview was J.C. “Jake” Elder, the much-traveled crew chief who had joined Earnhardt’s Rod Osterlund-owned team just three races earlier.

“It’s by far the biggest win of my career,” Elder stated emphatically. “No question about it.” Never mind that he had fielded superspeedway winners for drivers such as Fred Lorenzen, David Pearson, Parsons and Waltrip.

The ride with Californian Osterlund in ’79 was Dale’s first on a fulltime basis at the Winston Cup level. Before that season he had driven for six different car owners, including four starts for Osterlund in ’78 in which he posted a best finish of fourth.  

In just his second Winston Cup event in 1976 Earnhardt was involved in a horrifying, barrel-rolling crash at Atlanta International Raceway. His car, fielded by Alabamian Johnny Ray, sailed over a car driven by Dick Brooks and was totally destroyed. Earnhardt was unhurt, but there was speculation in the press box that the experience would scare him away from the big-time series.

“People who thought that didn’t know Dale Earnhardt,” long-time driver and hall-of-famer Buddy Baker said years later. “I was in the garage area at Atlanta that day of Dale’s awful crash, and the minute he got out of being checked at the infirmary he was out on pit road begging people to let him drive relief for them so he could get back in the race.”

Earnhardt didn’t triumph again in ’79, but he posted 10 more top five finishes and was rookie of the year. He won five races in 1980, taking the championship with Osterlund and Elder by 19 points over three-peat title winner Cale Yarborough.

After Osterlund sold his team to Jim Stacy in ’81, Earnhardt decided to move on. He first went to Richard Childress Racing, then joined team owner Bud Moore in 1982-83. Dale returned to Childress in ’84 and remained in the No 3 cars, mainly Chevrolets, until his death in a last-lap crash during the 2001 Daytona 500.

Sixty-seven of Earnhardt’s 76 victories and six of his record-tying seven championships came while he was driving for his friend Childress. As the 30th anniversary of  Earnhardt’s breakthrough victory approaches, I remember standing alongside Dale and Elder on pit road at Bristol after they had qualified ninth.

“Stick with me, kid, and we’ll both be wearing diamonds as big as horse turds,” said the crusty Elder, now 72 and  the resident of an assisted living home in Statesville, N.C.

It’s no “April Fool” joking that Earnhardt could have had gems even larger than that if he’d wished.  His race winnings totaled $42,001,697, and he probably earned more than that in endorsements and business dealings.