Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Sr. ( April 29, 1951February 18, 2001 ) was an American race car driver, best known for his involvement in stock car racing for NASCAR.

The carnage resulted in Schrader and Earnhardt, Jr. rushing to Earnhardt, Sr. Earnhardt was extricated from his car and taken to Halifax Medical Center.

* Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ( b. 1974 ), American race car driver, son of Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

The company contracted with Richard Childress Racing in late 2000 to be an associate sponsor for Dale Earnhardt, Sr. during the 2001 NASCAR race season.

It was not until after the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr., under similar circumstances, that NASCAR mandated head-and-neck restraints.

The scene where Big John tells Cole and Rowdy they will drive to dinner together is based on an actual meeting Bill France, Sr. had in the 1980s between Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. won four, including the 2000 championship, before his death in February 2001.

In 1994, Labonte joined Hendrick Motorsports, racing the # 5 Kellogg's Chevrolet and responded by notching 3 wins in each of his first two years there, including a famous win at Bristol in 1995, where the front of his car was wrecked after Dale Earnhardt Sr. crashed into him in the final lap.

His comeback season started well when he qualified on the front row for the season opening Daytona 500 beside Dale Earnhardt, Sr .. During Speedweeks, Irvan captured a victory in the 125-mile qualifying race for the Daytona 500.

He was the father of Dale Earnhardt, Sr .; the grandfather of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kelly Earnhardt, Nicole Earnhardt, and Kerry Earnhardt, and great grandfather of Jeffrey Earnhardt.

On July 7, 2001, Earnhardt Jr. won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, the first restrictor plate race at Daytona after Earnhardt, Sr .' s death.

Other race fans believe Disney has made bad calls with announcers, first with Bob Jenkins leaving the network after the 2003 season, and also with pit reporters Jack Arute, Jr., son of the Stafford ( CT ) Motor Speedway owner, and Jerry Punch, who substituted for Jenkins frequently on NASCAR broadcasts in the late 1990s, including Dale Earnhardt, Sr .' s last NASCAR win in 2000, whom some believed should have taken the role of lap-by-lap.

Although connected with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., the race team founded by Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and run by Teresa Earnhardt after his death, the two were separate operations.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | Dale Earnhardt, Jr .' s Budweiser car in 2007

Considered one of the best NASCAR drivers of all time, Earnhardt won a total of 76 races over the course of his career, including one Daytona 500 victory in 1998.

While driving in the 2001 Daytona 500, Earnhardt died of basilar skull fracture in a last-lap crash at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001.

Earnhardt was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, on April 29, 1951, to Martha Coleman and Ralph Lee Earnhardt, who was then one of the best short-track drivers in North 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 had four siblings, Danny, Randy, Cathy, and Kaye.

When Earnhardt was 17, he married his first wife, Latane Brown, in 1968.

Brown gave birth to Earnhardt's first son, Kerry Earnhardt, in 1969.

In 1971, Earnhardt married his second wife, Brenda Gee ( the daughter of NASCAR car builder Robert Gee ), with whom he had a daughter, Kelley King, in 1972, and a son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in 1974.

Earnhardt began his professional career at the Winston Cup in 1975, making his debut at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina in the longest race on the Cup circuit, the World 600.

Earnhardt drove an Ed Negre Dodge Charger (# 8 ) and finished 22nd in the race, one place ahead of his future car owner, Richard Childress.

joined car owner Rod Osterlund Racing, 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, 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.

In his sophomore season, Earnhardt, now with 20-year old Doug Richert as his crew chief, began the season winning the Busch Clash.

With wins at Atlanta, Bristol, Nashville, Martinsville, and Charlotte, Earnhardt won his first Winston Cup championship.

To this day, Earnhardt is the only driver in NASCAR Winston Cup history to follow a Rookie of the Year title with a NASCAR Winston Cup Championship the next season.

Stacy, Earnhardt left for Richard Childress Racing, and finished the season 7th in the points standings but winless.

The following year, at Childress ' suggestion, Earnhardt joined car owner Bud Moore for the 1982 and 1983 seasons driving the No. 15 Wrangler Jeans Ford Thunderbird ( Earnhardt's only full-time Ford ride in his career ).

Ken Schrader, Tony Stewart, Dave Blaney, Scott Wimmer, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. all own short tracks, most of them being dirt.

* 1990: Dale Earnhardt took the win, but the story of the race was a massive accident between Ernie Irvan and Ken Schrader ; Irvan was ten laps down yet racing nose-to-nose with Schrader as if for the lead, and lost control in Four ; several cars collided in the ensuring melee and Sterling Marlin spun off the wall and hammered Neil Bonnett ; Bonnett suffered severe memory loss and was lost for three seasons as a driver.

On the last lap of the 500, Marlin was responsible for starting the crash that killed Dale Earnhardt when he touched Earnhardt's left rear panel in turn 4 on the final lap, sending Earnhardt up into Ken Schrader.

Earnhardt started off the 1995 season by finishing second in the Daytona 500 to Sterling Marlin.

In the August race at Michigan International Speedway, Earnhardt led laps late in the race and nearly pulled off his first win on a non-restrictor plate track since 1996.

On February 3 and 4, 2001, the first time in his career, Earnhardt participated in the Rolex 24 endurance race at Daytona, the event which kicks off Speedweeks at the track.

Stewart started off his 2004 season with a second place finish to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the Daytona 500.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., trying to break a long winless drought, ran out of gas coming off of turn 4, and Kevin Harvick scored his third win of 2011.

Harvick (# 21 ) during his 2006 Busch championship season, racing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (# 8 ) off pit road

Kyle Busch won the Capital City 400 on April 28, 2012, for the fourth year in a row by holding off Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart.

Edwards spun as Keselowski charged to the checkered flag, getting airborne and bouncing off the hood of Ryan Newman's # 39 car, then smashed into the catch fence and skidded to a stop in the middle of the track as Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. crossed the finish line.

Keselowski won the pole for the 2011 Coca Cola 600, and the following week, he was able to get the lead with nine laps to go and hold off a charging Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to win the 2011 STP 400 at Kansas Speedway on fuel mileage.

However, Harvick and his team held off a struggling Dale Earnhardt Jr. to make the Chase for the Cup.