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ALSO SEE
A Day for Dale
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Thursday, June 21, 2001
The making of a legend
By Jack Arute
Special to ESPN.com
The death of Dale Earnhardt sent media outlets across America scrambling for people -- any people -- who had an association with the undisputed greatest NASCAR driver.
|  | | Dale Earnhard holds a front page proclaiming him the 1980 NASCAR Grand National Champion. |
Many of the interviews that I did regarding Earnhardt were prefaced with "Jack Arute joins us now and Jack you knew Dale and his family..." "No." I would correct the interviewer, "I knew Dale, but not his family."
I first met Dale while anchoring NASCAR's MRN radio broadcasts. Our radio coverage included two Late Model Sportsman (now Busch Series) races annually at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway. Earnhardt was always there tearing up the competition but seldom being a top finisher. He caught my attention because he was the teenage son of Ralph Earnhardt – considered the toughest short track driver ever to put a NASCAR decal on the side of his race car – who died prematurely while working on his race car in 1973.
Tattered blue jeans and a white T-shirt was Earnhardt's fashion statement. He couldn't be bothered with fancy pit uniforms. Every dime he had was in his race car. He was a 9th grade dropout who knew nothing but racing and wasn't ashamed of it.
At the time, the late Joe Whitlock was working with the Charlotte Motor Speedway and over a couple of smokes and far more Jack Daniels, he explained that Earnhardt had the potential to revolutionize NASCAR if he ever got the chance at the big time. "He has natural ability," growled Joe. "He might be rough right now, but with the right operation..."
When Joe first introduced me to Dale, this kid from Kannapolis was shy and reserved. He spoke with a humble tone that mixed with wide eyed enthusiasm. By the time in 1975 that Dale made his first Winston Cup start, I had learned a lot about this Earnhardt kid and spent countless hours with him at a little shop near Charlotte Motor Speedway run by the late Robert Gee. The thing that struck me about Earnhardt – every short track owner and mechanic that I spoke to echoed the same sentiment – was that Earnhardt had what it took to make it on NASCAR's elite circuit. All that he needed was a chance.
His World 600 outing at Charlotte Motor Speedway was far from stunning. His 22nd place finish did little to validate the faith that many had in Earnhardt, but that didn't stop guys like H. A. Humpy Wheeler (Charlotte's President and friend of Dale's late father) from campaigning to get Dale a full-time shot at Winston Cup.
By 1979, Earnhardt's friends had succeeded. California developer Rod Osterlund campaigned Earnhardt for NASCAR's Rookie of the Year title. Whitlock left his position with Charlotte and took on the task of molding Earnhardt's public persona. Early that season, Earnhardt approached Whitlock while Joe and I were together and asked Whitlock one of the most prophetic requests. "Joe," asked Earnhardt, "can you work with me on my autograph because I think I'm gonna need it?"
Richard Petty called him a "diamond in the rough." The King of Stock Car racing thought this rookie took too many chances but Petty saw the promise – the raw unbridled talent. So did legendary car owner Junior Johnson. Johnson prepared cars for Cale Yarbrough, NASCAR's three-time Winston Cup champ.
When Yarbrough left Johnson at the end of the '80 season, Junior considered Earnhardt for the seat, but thought Earnhardt's '80 Winston Cup championship with Rod Osterlund precluded an Earnhardt hiring. So instead Johnson tapped Darrell Waltrip as his driver.
By mid-season of '81 Osterlund's operation was foundering. Business reversals put Earnhardt's Wrangler team in jeopardy of folding. At Talladega later that season, Junior Johnson summoned Richard Childress to his rental car and as I listened made Childress – who owned and drove his own cars – a proposition. "If you will retire as a driver," drawled Johnson, "I'll help you start your own team. I'll provide you with help at General Motors, provide you with engines if you need them and anything else that you need.
"But, you need to hire Dale Earnhardt as your driver." Childress did and six Winston Cup championships, countless victories and a legend was the result.
Guys like Dr. Jerry Punch can far better articulate the life and times of Dale Earnhardt during his association with Richard Childress. They can far better explain how family became so important to Dale Earnhardt after his daughter Taylor Nicole was born. He assembled a number of NASCAR officials in a van at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and drove them into turn 2 and pointed up to a luxury suite where his wife held their daughter and lectured them "You see that? That's what life is all about!"
RPM2Nite's John Kernan can cite Earnhardt's random acts of kindness toward people like Ernie Irvan whom he provided money and a car for so the vagabond Californian could pursue his dream of racing in the Winston Cup.
Close friend and associate Don Hawk can tell you how Dale Earnhardt provided seed for his farming neighbors to replant their crops after flood ravaged their livelihood. Or how he stayed in Daytona's Victory Lane in 1998 after winning the "Great American Race" – shedding a 20 year Daytona 500 winless streak – giving individual interviews to every TV and radio outlet there until well past midnight.
His newest driver Michael Waltrip can better recount stories about he and wife Buffy's Bahamas vacations with Dale and Teresa on Earnhardt's luxury yacht and how one day in a fit of frustration because his scuba mask didn't fit properly "The Intimidator" shaved his moustache off.
But all I can tell you first hand is the promise that I saw – and lived – with a young Dale Earnhardt. Before family, before stardom, when he was just another race car driver. A time that he never forgot and used as motivation to reward others like him.
No I didn't know Dale Earnhardt's family that well. But, I am proud to say that I did know Dale Earnhardt.
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