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 Monday, February 26, 2001
Earnhardt tribute: The last cowboy
By Jack Arute
Special to ABC Sports Online
Dale Earnhardt's autopsy determined that he died of blunt force injuries to the head when his Chevy caromed off the fourth turn concrete at Daytona.
But it will take much longer to truly chronicle the life of NASCAR's greatest driver. If Richard Petty is NASCAR's King, then Dale Earnhardt was NASCAR itself.
|  | | A little boy places flowers at a memorial outside the headquarters for Dale Earnhardt Inc. as the flags fly at half-staff. |
"There's been a Dale Earnhardt as long as I can remember, not just racing but racing and winning," said 31-year-old Jeremy Mayfield. "For the younger guys in the sport, he has been our Richard Petty. He was the guy who won all of the championships."
"It's more than just one race car driver losing his life," said driver Mike Wallace. "He impacted a lot of people. I had a friend call me (Sunday night) and he was crying over the phone. He had never met Earnhardt, just had watched him on television and at the races.
"He was The Man. That sounds kind of silly to say and a lot of people use it superficially, but it just fits him. He was The Man."
Seven Winston Cup championships, 34 different Daytona Speedway victories and 76 Winston Cup wins do not define Earnhardt. Nor does his nickname "The Intimidator". His gruff, take no prisoners persona effectively hid Dale Earnhardt's true-life legacy.
As a scruffy, undereducated teen from Kannapolis, N.C., Ralph Dale Earnhardt followed his father, Ralph, into a sport that would eventually elevate him to icon status. He crashed a lot when he first set his toe in the NASCAR Winston Cup pool. Sure, he captured Rookie of the Year and his first Winston Cup title in back-to-back seasons, but by his third year on the circuit, Dale was ill-prepared for the spotlight.
Instead of shunning the attention, Earnhardt set about learning how to best present himself to the public. With the help of the late Joe Whitlock, Earnhardt acquired the necessary skills to survive in the ever growing, public relations and marketing driven world of NASCAR.
It was Junior Johnson who convinced Richard Childress to retire from driving and hire Dale Earnhardt as a driver. Both Childress and Dale grew as a team and they won -- a lot.
Earnhardt tempered his multi-million dollar empire building with a keen awareness that he owed the sport and its fans for his success. When Ernie Irvan came east from California to pursue his Winston Cup dream, Earnhardt helped him financially. More so, he hounded potential owners to give Irvan a shot.
If a driver or a racing team, down on its luck needed a boost, Earnhardt was apt to step in and without fanfare.
"At Talladega my rookie season (1994), the second race there, my team just didn't have a lot of money. We had one good restrictor plate engine and we broke it in practice," recalls Petty Dodge driver John Andretti. " There was no way we were even going to make the race.
"I was walking through the garage before second-round qualifying and ran into Richard Childress. He said, 'How are things going?' and I said, 'Not so good.' I told him what was going on but didn't say much more. Even if I had thought to ask him for some help, there is no way we could have afforded anything from them.
"I found out later he told Earnhardt about it and Earnhardt had an idea. He and Richard gave one of their qualifying engines to Dave Marcis, and had Marcis move his qualifying engine to our car. The engine we got was phenomenal. We were 11th-fastest in second-round qualifying and made the race because of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress."
But Dale Earnhardt was more than racing. He loved to hunt, often spending hours hunched 30 feet in the air in a deer stand waiting to take a trophy deer with his bow and arrow.
He roamed his farm, proudly inspecting his prize cattle and taking in hay. Sweat and hard work were cornerstones to his life. As were his family and his abiding belief in God. Before each race, Stevie Waltrip, Darrell's wife, would tape a Bible verse inside her husband's car. She did so inside of Earnhardt's as well.
And there always was the Earnhardt smirk. Drivers like Kyle Petty knew what it meant. Dale Earnhardt was telling you he was the best. He knew it, and he knew you knew it. Or, was he?
"A lot of times, you wouldn't know what he was thinking but you thought you did. And it might not mean a thing in the world, but he knew you were trying to figure it out.
"He was the last cowboy."
Jack Arute mans the pits for ABC Sports' auto racing coverage. He writes a column every Monday for ABC Sports Online.
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