“Dale Earnhardt Tells It like It Is”: Dale Earnhardt Jr Unravels His Father’s Short-Lived Career With Elder Sister

Dale Earnhardt Sr is a driver that piques the interest of NASCAR fans and celebrities. Arguably the greatest-ever driver in the sport’s history, the enigmatic speedster from North Carolina had more to give to the community than just his racing stints. Junior and his sister Kelley Earnhardt got together to uncover a relatively unknown talent of their father.

Revealing the late 7-time champion’s hidden abilities with the pen, the pair reveal a piece of his mind expressed through a newspaper. Bringing another forgotten story from the past is Dirty Mo Media continuing their forte of bringing such tales to the fore.

Dale Earnhardt Jr unveils his father’s talents as a journalist

Junior managed to get a copy of his late father’s vocabulary. Reading out the bi-monthly article from 1979, he tried to remember the man behind Dale Sr’s motivation to have a go at writing. He said that his father most probably collaborated with his PR group of Joe Whitlock who was based mainly at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Whitlock wrote an opinion column in the Grand National scene at that point in time.

“He would not have came to somebody and said, ‘Hey, I think I should do this.’ Joe or somebody went to Dad and said this will help you connect to fans. You’re a new guy, you’ve got to quickly make your name and establish yourself. Here’s a great way to do it,” recalled Jr.

“So he writes these bi-monthly articles and as we would learn, he’s only going to write them up until May. So just the first third of the year.”

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Reading out loud his father’s first try at writing for a larger audience, Junior said, “Local Rookie loves Grand National Racing is the title. ‘Dale Earnhardt tells it like it is.’ So Dale Earnhardt is a promising 28-year-old Winston Cup driver from Kannapolis and is in the thick of the battle for the 1979 Grand National Rookie of the Year.” Earnhardt eventually went on to win the prize to kickstart his Winston Cup career.

He continued, “He’s thrown his hat into the ring during a year that many experts agree has attracted the most talented lineup of rookie contenders in stock car racing history. Young Earnhardt driving for the Charlotte-based Rod Osterlund Racing team wouldn’t have it any other way. Competitive stock car racing has been the way of life for him as long as he can remember.”

It looks like Earnhardt had a rather creative side to him when he was not chasing cars down to the brim and being the Intimidator.

“I think that’s one of the hard parts”: Kelley Earnhardt goes back in time

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“One heck of a wreck, that’s what it was,” wrote Dale Sr talking about his T-Bone wreck with Donnie Allison at Rockingham after rounding up his performance during that year’s Atlanta 500 and Richmond. Allison was beefing with Cale Yarborough in the late 70s and unfortunately happened to spin by the rampant Earnhardt’s way.

Daughter Kelley was immersed as Junior weaved the story. Summarising her emotions that reminded her of her father, she said,

“I’m thinking about just as you’re reading and I’m envisioning the surroundings and what’s around and what the world’s like right? Because I think that’s one of the hard parts for us in today’s time not living in ’79 to really understand that to really think…”

“I mean that this article of someone, calling someone on a telephone, maybe a rotary telephone you know, calling someone to get these quotes and write it, type it up on a typewriter, to get it to the printer, like this is a a process of time after events you know, after things are happening. It’s just really interesting to think about that aspect of it but you know I can remember too like going to dinner with Tom Higgins who wrote for the Charlotte Observer. People would join us to dinner to get that kind of information.”

Even today Dale Sr’s influence is very visible in all aspects of NASCAR as more and more drivers from his future generations took up his aggressive and competitive style as well. Nevertheless, his writings make a return to a more crude version of racing and the risks associated with it.

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