Ralph Dale Earnhardt, called Dale, was born on April 29, 1951 in Kannapolis, North Carolina, where all the streets are named after cars. His father Ralph, was already a respected racecar driver in the NASCAR Sportsman Division. "Following in his footsteps is all I've ever wanted to do," Dale said.
His earliest memories were of watching his father racing. Dale Earnhardt started to race himself while he was still in high school, battling it out on the local tracks in North Carolina. He quit school after finishing the eighth grade to race, much to the dismay of his father, and got himself a job doing alignments in a garage. .
Although he never finished high school, he found himself supporting a wife and the first of his four kids by the time he was 18, but there was always time for racing. He divorced his first wife at age 19 and married again a year later. By the time he was 24 he was a two-time divorcee with three kids. He blamed racing as the reason for two failed marriages. Racing in those days wasn't glamorous. Sometimes he"d borrow money during the week, hoping to make it all back during the weekend races. Earnhardt asked for many favors during his early days. The first car he ever drove was a 1956 Ford sedan given to him by his neighbors, David and Ray Oliver. While mixing the paint to pain the car, the results came out pink - ironic for the man who would go down in history as "The Man In Black." Repainting this car would mean more money that Dale just didn't have, so he just painted DAYVAULT'S TUNE-UP & BRAKE SER. (Service) on the side of his hot pink number K2 and went racing.
Tragedy struck Dale in 1973. His father Ralph had died of a heart attack while working on his own racecar. This left a deep hole in Dale's life.
Ironically his father's death gave his career a jump-start. Dale's mother gave him both of Ralph's racecars, which were much better than the rides that Dale was used to. But Dale didn't have the same conservative driving style as his father.
