‘Dirty Mo Media’, the media company owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., recently premiered the inaugural episode of ‘Becoming Earnhardt,’ a captivating series that follows Dale Jr.’s father, Dale Earnhardt, during his rookie season in 1979. This remarkable production draws from the invaluable scrapbooks meticulously preserved by Dale Jr.’s Aunt Kaye, allowing viewers to delve into the intimate details of the legendary racer’s early career.

Dale Earnhardt Jr made an excellent first episode, reminiscing his father’s journey, and revealing his hard work behind the journey and politics, which helped him to get the Osterlund team seat.

In 1974, driving for Richard Brown, Dale Earnhardt completed his first-ever Cup start in 200-lap non-points exhibition and finished in fourth place. He also made some other Cup attempts in the mid-70s, which helped him to make his place for the Osterlund team.

Dale Earnhardt Steadily Ascended Through Small Steps, Inching Closer to Securing a Position on the Renowned Osterlund Team

Mechanic Mastermind Will Cronkrite was preparing to field a car for Willy T. Ribbs at the World 600 through a deal with track president Humpy Wheeler. But somehow the deal got canceled and Will started looking for the driver to take a seat.

Before long, Will Cronkrite received a phone call from Dale Earnhardt and he asked, “He says, ‘Can I drive that Car?’”

Will replied, “You know it’s not my car this is a deal program I said I’m not in charge this is what we care for this company. So I don’t care.”

Eventually, Dale Earnhardt made his seat after their agreement with the team, and the duo of Dale and Will set out to conquer the 600 and they even finished impressive 17th place. However, after that, they arranged more camps and even Humpy tried to give the best opportunity for Dale to showcase his talent.

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How Dale Earnhardt Got a Chance to Take a Seat on Osterlund’s Team? Was It Luck or Performance?

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One day after finishing the Darlington race, Dale had an important race at Metrolina. For some reason, Dale Earnhardt had to start the race from the last position but he still won the race by passing the leader on the very last lap. Surprisingly, Osterlund was there to see the race, and he was overwhelmed to see the way Dale raced that night.

Junior, in his words, told, “The strong first impression let the Rod giving dad an audition in a sportsman car for the 1978 World Service Life 300. Dad would exceed expectations finishing second to Bobby Allison by mere feet. The Osterlund team had seen enough and they were ready to field dad in a full-time ride for the 1979 season running as a teammate to Dave Marcis. This how ever unfortunately would disrupt his plans with Will.”

When Dale asked Will if he can leave his team, Will felt there was no reason to decline as he said in the episode, “Osterlund had more to offer him than I did, I had nothing with sponsorship I had one car so I said Yeah I don’t have a problem doing that” 

Finally, Dale’s first Osterlund debut came in Dixy 500 at Atlanta, which was the second to last race of the schedule. And it was the first time where he came home with the top five in the big leagues.

And suddenly, after his onboarding his teammate, Marcus left the team, reasoning the change of his crew chief. Marcus was so attached to his crew chiefs as he helped him many times with his car and engine. So when the team fired his crew chief, Dave decided to leave the team too.

The internal politics in his previous team and this major change in personnel in his second team made Dale Earnhardt the top-line driver of the Rod Osterlund Racing team.

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