LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dale Earnhardt: Races
built 157 days ago
On June 18, 2006 at Michigan for the 3M Performance 400 Dale Earnhardt Jr ran a special vintage Budweiser car to honor his dad and his grandfather Ralph Earnhardt. He finished 3rd after rain caused the race to be cut short. The car was painted to resemble Ralph's 1956 dirt cars, and carried 1956-era Budweiser logos to complete the throwback look.
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Last Sunday, the racing world lost one of its best competitors when Dale Earnhardt crashed and died on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Earnhardt's death revealed the affection people have for athletes as well as the excessive treatment fans provide celebrities.
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Earnhardt began 1996 with a repeat of 1993 - he dominated Speedweeks only to finish second in the Daytona 500 to Dale Jarrett for a 2nd time. Earnhardt won early in the year, scoring consecutive victories at Rockingham and Atlanta. In late July in the DieHard 500 at Talladega, he was in the points lead and looking for his eighth title despite the departure of crew chief Andy Petree. Late in the race, Ernie Irvan lost control of his #28 Havoline Ford Thunderbird, igniting a frightening crash that saw Earnhardt's #3 Chevrolet hit the tri-oval wall nearly head-on at almost 200 miles per hour. After hitting the wall, Earnhardt's car flipped and slid across the track, in front of race-traffic. His car was hit in the roof and windshield, and the accident led NASCAR to mandate the "Earnhardt Bar", a metal brace located in the center of the windshield that reinforces the roof in case of a similar crash.
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Dale Earnhardt began racing late model, six-cylinder stock cars at age 15. Occasionally he got the chance to race against his father. That was a real thrill for him. He began his career on asphalt in 1974 in a 5 year old Sportsman car he bought from Harry Gant. In May 1975 he entered his first Winston Cup race - The World 600 at Charlotte. In an Ed Negre owned Dodge he started 33rd and finished 22nd, one position ahead of Richard Childress.
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Dale Earnhardt was the son of race car driver Ralph Earnhardt, who participated in the formative years of the NASCAR circuit's Grand National Division (the precursor to today's NEXTEL Cup Series). Although the elder Earnhardt was a successful racer, he kept his day job at a cotton mill in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Dale quit school at the age of 16 to pursue racing fulltime. He ... married his first wife at a very young age: she gave birth to his eldest child, his son Kerry.
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Dale Earnhardt was born 0n April 29, 1951 to a dirt track legend named Ralph Earnhardt in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Dale grew up watching his dad race and grew up racing himself.(1) He quit school in ninth grade to race. In September of 1973 Ralph Earnhardt died. It was a huge loss for Dale Earnhardt.(18)
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