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

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.

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

During the 1984 and 1985 seasons, Earnhardt visited victory lane six times, at Talladega, Atlanta, Richmond, Bristol ( twice ), and Martinsville, where he finished fourth and eighth in the season standings, respectively.

Cope, in an upset, won the race while Earnhardt finished fifth.

Earnhardt did not win again in 1996, but still finished 4th in the standings behind Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett.

Earnhardt finished 7th in the standings that year, and looked like a contender again.

The team, which was composed of Earnhardt, Earnhardt, Jr., Andy Pilgrim, and Kelly Collins, finished 4th overall and 2nd in class.

In 1998, Bobby won the pole for the Daytona 500, where he eventually finished 2nd to Dale Earnhardt in Earnhardt's emotional first Daytona 500 win.

At Talladega Labonte finished 10th place, and at one point was running second in that race to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

In 1993, he won 10 of the 30 races, but finished second in the final points standings, 80 points behind Earnhardt.

The closest this came to happening was in 2004, when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the Gatorade Duel and the Daytona 500, but finished second to Jarrett in the Bud Shootout.

Dale Earnhardt emerged from late green-flag pitstops with the lead after trailing by some three seconds entering the pits ; there were complaints from several teams, notably Morgan-McClure whose driver Ernie Irvan finished second, that Earnhardt had broken NASCAR's mandated pit road speed limit.

Along with a win at Phoenix, Martin finished with five wins, 12 top fives, 19 top tens, and five poles en route to a third place finish in the standings, 376 points behind Dale Earnhardt.

Despite having eight DNFs, Martin finished second to Earnhardt in the 1994 standings, 444 points behind.

In September 1988, Dale Earnhardt gave Wallace the seat for his first-ever NASCAR start, in which he finished eleventh in the Busch Series race at Martinsville Speedway, driving the # 8 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet.

Also mentioned in the scene that Earnhardt finished 4th in the race, Earnhardt finished 8th in his first Daytona 500 start and thus it is also inaccurate.

During the scene of him being at a gas station, soon after the short montage of Earnhardt winning the 1980 title, it showed John Anderson flipping over during the 1981 qualifying races at Daytona, a race that Earnhardt finished 4th at.

He slipped to 12th in the standings halfway through the season, and Richard Childress decided to make a crew chief change, taking Mike Skinner's crew chief Kevin Hamlin and putting him with Earnhardt while giving Skinner Larry McReynolds.

Earnhardt's victory was a then-record for fewest races to notch a victory in the " modern era " on the Cup circuit, winning in just his 12th start, breaking the record held by his father, Dale Earnhardt ( 16 starts ).

Earnhardt won at Nashville and at Talladega, finishing eighth in the points standings.

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

Earnhardt went on to win nine races this season and won his fourth Winston Cup title, beating Mark Martin by 26 points.

Earnhardt beat Rusty Wallace for the championship by 80 points.

Earnhardt was very consistent, scoring four wins, and after Ernie Irvan was sidelined due to a near-deadly crash at Michigan ( the two were neck-and-neck at the top of the points up until the crash ), won title by over 400 points over Mark Martin.

But in the end, Earnhardt lost the championship to Jeff Gordon by just 34 points.

Bobby would go on to win his first ever Winston Cup Championship, finishing ahead of Dale Earnhardt by 265 points.

Halfway through the 1993 season, Davey was fifth in the point standings, but was 323 points behind leader Dale Earnhardt.

The reason the team gave for removing the car from the race was a blown engine, however Bonnett was teamed with points leader Dale Earnhardt, and the car was retired to assist Earnhardt in winning the season's championship.

Earnhardt needed to maximize his finishing position, and by Bonnett quitting the race he was assured of those three championship points.

In 1989, Wallace won the NASCAR Winston Cup Championship, with crew chief Barry Dodson, by finishing 15th at the Atlanta Journal 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, to beating out close friend and fierce rival Dale Earnhardt who won the race, by twelve points.

He gained the championship points lead one-third into the season and held onto it for 16 races before dropping it to Dale Earnhardt with two races to go.

Despite having three wins, 16 top fives, 23 top tens, and three poles, Martin lost to Earnhardt by 26 points in the final standings.

A 46-point penalty at Richmond, for using an illegal ( but non-performance enhancing ) carburetor spacer, caused him to lose to Dale Earnhardt by 26 points in the final standings.

Yarborough barely missed out on his fourth championship in five years, losing the championship to Dale Earnhardt by 19 points.

Entering the GM Goodwrench Dealer 400 at Michigan in August, Ernie matched Dale Earnhardt win for win with three each, led in Top-5 finishes and winnings and trailed Earnhardt by 27 points after having led the standings for most of the season.

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.

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.

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 ).

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

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.

The following year, Earnhardt won five times, but a late spin out at North Wilkesboro arguably cost him the 1989 championship, as Rusty Wallace edged out Earnhardt for the championship.

The 1990 season started for Earnhardt with victories in the Busch Clash and his heat of the Gatorade Twin 125s.

Late in the race Gant lost his brakes, which gave Earnhardt the chance he needed to make the pass for the win and maintain his record.

1996 for Earnhardt started just as it had done in 1993 – he dominated Speedweeks only to finish second in the Daytona 500 to Dale Jarrett for a second time.

In 1997, Earnhardt went winless for only the second time in his career.

Once again in the hunt for the Daytona 500 with 10 laps to go, Earnhardt was taken out of contention by a late crash which sent his car upside down on the backstretch.

Mike Dillon ( Richard Childress's son-in-law ) was brought in to relieve Earnhardt for the remainder of the race.

Earnhardt began the season by winning his Twin 125-mile qualifier race for the ninth straight year.

Afterwards, there was a large show of respect for Earnhardt, in which every crew member of every team lined pit road to shake his hand as he made his way to victory lane.

Earnhardt swept both races for the year at Talladega, leading most observers to conclude that Earnhardt's talent had become limited to the restrictor plate tracks, which require a unique skill set and an exceptionally powerful car to win.

Some angry fans of Earnhardt wrote hate letters and death threats to Sterling Marlin, blaming him for causing the crash.

Fans began honoring Earnhardt by holding three fingers aloft on the third lap of every NASCAR Cup race, and the television coverage of NASCAR on Fox and NASCAR on NBC went silent for each third lap from Rockingham to the following year's race there in honor of Earnhardt For the first three weeks after Earnhardt's death, on-track incidents brought out the caution flag on lap three.