Page "Dale Earnhardt" Paragraph 12

The 1986 season saw Earnhardt win his second career Winston Cup Championship and the first owner's championship for RCR.

He won five races and had ten Top 5 and sixteen Top 10 finishes.

Earnhardt successfully defended his championship the following year, visiting victory lane eleven times and winning the championship by 489 points over Bill Elliott.

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 his nickname " The Intimidator " after spinning out Elliott in the final segment of " The Winston ", a non-points event now known as the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.

During this race, Earnhardt was briefly forced into the infield grass, but kept control of his car and returned to the track without giving up his lead — a maneuver now referred to as the " Pass in the Grass " even though Earnhardt actually didn't pass and couldn't have passed anyone for position as he was in the lead at the time.