The Dale Jr. Download - Becoming Earnhardt Vol. 4 - King Takes The Rook

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Basking in the glory of his first NASCAR Cup victory, rookie Dale Earnhardt finds himself in the conversation of the top talents in the garage area. Not only has he put the heat on the rest of the rookie class with his triumph, but he’s put stock car racing’s veterans on notice: the kid from Kannapolis is the real deal. But following up his win would be no easy task, as the next event on the Cup schedule would take him to the track deemed Too Tough To Tame, and the Lady in Black had many hard lessons to teach an overconfident freshman. After Darlington and his first trip to the Paperclip, Dale and the rest of the NASCAR contingent take on a grueling month of May, which includes the fastest race weekend to date at Talladega, a brutal 500-lapper at Dover and the longest contest in stock car racing, the World 600. Join us on this episode of Becoming Earnhardt as we unpack races 8 through 13 of the greatest NASCAR season ever, 1979. Our main character has found the spotlight, but it will be tested by not only some of the toughest events on the calendar but a toe-to-toe battle with none other than the King of NASCAR himself.FanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets, which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirtymoe Media. The name to Ellen Hart means something different now. Before it meant talented but unproven, scrappy, but unrefined. Now, after winning his first cup race, it means favorite for a rookie of the year and a threat for the overall championship. That's even more alarming for Richard Petty,

Darrow, Pall Yarborough, and David Pearson, and the Aliconsons. The number two, Osselin Racing team had unlocked a confidence that only comes from victories, and the 1979 season was still young. Crew member Doug Reichert remembers the immediate change. You know, winning his momentum, you know, when you finally know that you can do it and you finally do it, that's a lot of confidence in that. And from that point on, we didn't go to the race to finish second. Second's just the first loser. So we always tried to win them all. And I think that was Dale's.

mentality all along. He didn't care what it took. He was going to win them all. All right, so now what happens for the team and dad? Would the momentum from his Bristol victory carry him into the next six races? This was a hellacious slate of challenging tracks coming up. Or would Dad be destined for the bottom of the all-time wins list with the rest of the one-hit wonders?

I'm Dellenhart Jr. And on this episode of Becoming Earnhardt, we continue our journey through the 19th 1979 NASCAR season with races 8 through 13. This stretch will feature some insane battles, a huge breakup with an iconic team and driver, and some rough patches for dad. But as we will learn, Dale Earnhardt will get the chance to show how tough he is again, and he'll do it against the king of NASCAR. If there's ever a place that humbles a driver, even one who is riding the high of his first win,

It's NASCAR's first ever super speedway. That's Darlington Raceway. The oddly shaped oval in Darlington County, South Carolina is referred to as the track that's too tough to tame. And for good reason, it is impossible to master. You just hope to survive this race. It's for that reason it becomes the must win for anyone hoping to be considered among stock car racing's greats. Even though Dad has raced there before in 1978, he was far from. having the Lady in Black figured out.

Now, Dad would qualify fastest in second round, and you're going to hear about this. There's two rounds of qualifying. There'll be one round of qualifying for the weekend. They might set the top 12 or the top 16. And then everyone else has to re-qualify again the following day, and that is second round qualifying. And a lot of times, Dad wouldn't be fast enough to make first round qualifying. This is one of those times.

He's having a lot of trouble out on the racetrack, a lot of problems, and practice. And so he seeks out some help. Donnie Allison was one individual that was a huge help for dad this particular weekend. Creechee's Jake Elder probably went over to Donnie and Bobby Allison and said, hey man, can you give my rookie driver a help? Jake Elder and the Allison brothers would huddle with dad and school would be in session. And for second round qualifying, dad's going to improve nearly two miles an hour. That's a ton. So the help from Donnie made a big difference. Dad talks about how his entry into turn one was one of the main problems. Now remember, the racetrack was backwards in 1979. As we know Darlington today, turn one and two is that

big long corner and turn three and four is the top of an egg, if you will. Well, back in 1979, the track was backwards. So dad was having trouble with that particular corner. As we dive into this particular the race at Darlington, there's no question that one of the most dramatic events and moments, maybe in that whole decade, happened at Darlington during this race. David Pearson coming out pit road, lost both inside tires. Dave Rogers, isn't it something new? It really is. He was just about to get out into the track into the slower groove when all of a sudden

he started to mash down on the accelerator and nothing happened. So David Pearson is having a competitive day, driving for the Wood Brothers. We're deep into the race at lap 302, and the cars are coming down pit road, making pit stops under caution. And David Pearson leaves his pit stall, gets to the end of pit road, and the left side tires come off the car. I mean, they just come off the car. They didn't have any lugs on the left side. So Pearson explains, the Wood brothers were going to change four tires, but I thought they were only going to change. Change two, I was concentrating on beating

Darrell out of the pits to get back on the lead lap. So he's a lap down, but if he can beat the leader out of the pits, then he will then be on the tail end of the lead lap. And David Pearson says he mistook Leonard Wood yelling, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa for go, go, go. Pearson was running fourth at the time in the race, and he was in great shape to have a shot at this wind

if he was able to get the car back on the lead lap late in the race. Glenn Wood, the other half of the famed Wood brothers, was angry. He says, Dave is the one who asked for the four tires. We didn't really think he needed less, but we wanted to do what he asked. How do you ask for four tires, then quickly forget? The oddities didn't end there. Lenny Pond would park his car because of a headache. He claimed that the sounds going on and the noises inside the car created this problem.

Kale Yarborough will run out of gas in this race, Again and again and again. A total of three times, Junior Johnson was furious. Now, Dad had an interesting day. He finished 23rd, which is not good. But that's misleading because his engine broke on lap 165 of the 367 lap race. And he was running third at the time. He'll earn hard going into the third turn of puff of smoke.

Dale turn lap. Unlike today, back then you could change motors during the race, and that's exactly what the team. did. Dad was able to go back out on the track and show that he definitely had figured out how to get around Darlington. He ended up getting the Fireball Roberts rookie of the race award. Richard Petty leads him to the start, finish line. The white flag is out, Walter. Left him inside, Petty. They go in and turn one there side by side. This is the last lap of the race. After trading the lead with Richard Petty four times in the final lap, Darry

Walter held on for his second victory of the year. He and Petty actually made some contact a little bit over the last several laps. Darrell wins by just a car length. And Darrell says that they were putting on a show. They were waving back and forth at each other, and he never thought for a minute that Richard was going to wreck him. He said it was a tight race, fair and square. Rounding out the top five behind the King and Daryl is Donnie Allison, Benny Parsons,

and Buddy Baker. Now, the win, I know that Darrell started. Daryl started this season, obviously, with a focus on the championship. This win right here, it makes it almost a true reality. He can see clearly what they need to do to win this title. And he says this in the post race. I want to win the championship in the worst sort of way. We'll run every race, we'll change engines, we'll do whatever it takes.

Little to Darrow-Waltrop know that the man that he had just beat, Richard Petty, would be the one he'd fight for the 1979 championship in an epic 200. horse race and it would go all the way down to the final laps. More on that in later episodes. The other rookie's challenging dad for the rookie of the year title also experienced trouble. Joe Milken struggled with the handling of his Chevrolet all day long and Terry Labani had engine problems. Milken does manage a 10th place finish and he makes up a little ground in the rookie standings. Before we move on to Martinsville, we have to note a huge development that took place in the middle of the week between races eight and nine in a strange way this would impact australine racing

and my dad later in the year three days after this darlington race glen wood is going to shock the world of nascar and he's going to announce that david pearson is no longer the driver for the wood brother's team now pearson says the incident at darlington triggered it but it was a climax of several other things that this had been coming for a long time leonard wood he disagreed that the pit road mishap had anything to do with the split. He says it wasn't the pit road accident. It was certain matters that couldn't be worked out. You have to plan different strategies these days with 12 teams capable of winning.

Glenn Wood would go on to add it was the hardest decision that he had ever made regarding a driver. And he was hurt terribly by making it. But evidently, Glenn felt that Pearson wasn't pushing the car hard enough. and maybe Pearson seemed uninterested and being competitive at this stage in his career. Pearson actually thought about quitting the team. He even suggested that the team give another driver a test run in the car and just kind of see where they were.

But he decided not to do this because the team was going to sit down and have a conversation. So they planned to sit down and meet about all of this turmoil and all this miscommunication right before the Martinsville race, But suddenly Glenn calls Pearson and says, we're going a different direction. Pearson said, honestly, I believe that Glenn thought I was going to walk into the meeting and quit. And so he fired me before I had that opportunity. Glenn, on the other hand, had heard he had been told that David was going to quit in the meeting.

And so he said, hey, that gives me an idea on what I need to do. Glenn says, I don't really know whether the problem was with the car or the driver. David would qualify pretty well, and he'd fade back in the race, so I thought it was in the best interest of the team for us to split. He thinks that David can still drive a car as well as anybody, but he just doesn't know if he has his heart into it. Him and Leonard weren't getting along or getting together on the chassis, and David was even passing up final practice sessions the day before races. There was a lack of. of communication and harmony that actually were our strong points for so long.

David even openly admitted that he doesn't like running at Talladega and Daytona, and those are important tracks for us. It's hard for us to tell him to go out there and stick it in there like the other guys if he didn't want to. David's response was I can drive the car as well as anybody, but I can't drive it when it's not set up to my liking, or when the engine blows. They're great boys, but they are sore losers.

I can't really say anything bad about. bite them. They just hate to admit when they're wrong, but I'm not putting them down. They're a super bunch. To Pearson's defense, the team had had pretty poor results in 1979 thus far. They got that second place finish at Riverside.

They wrecked twice, blew a couple motors, and hadn't finished their last four races. And Leonard concluded, there's no bitterness on our part. I hope there's none with David. Let us all remember the good years and forget about how they ended. As I mentioned, the split shocked a NASCAR garage.

Richard Petty said he had to sit down when he heard the news. I mean, think about this. Richard Petty and David Pearson, how many won two finishes did they have during this decade? And now it's never going to happen again. I mean, even thinking about it now, it's hard to try to understand how this got to be. They had won 43 races together and 143 attempts. They won $1.3 million during that. time and Pearson went on to say that he'll race Grand National again. He won't drive junk.

It'll have to be a first-class car. And what hurts more than losing this ride is that none of the woods of the team has spoke with me since the Darlington race. And while Pearson's shoulders the blame for the pit stop malfunction at Darlington, the reaction of the Woodbrothers was uncharacteristic. They felt their reputations kind of were damaged. You know, this is a team, this is a proud bunch of guys who had revolutionized the pit stop. They had changed the way people were pitting the cars with speed and choreography. And here they were, the wheels falling off at the end of pit road. They felt like it was just uncalled for. It's such a difficult topic to discuss because I remember when we had Leonard Wood on our podcast, I had a discussion about this breakup.

Man, he was careful with his words. He would give us a few details, but he was. He was really, really careful not to place any blame on anybody. Right afterwards, we said, well, let's forget about it. And I was already talking to him about what was going to run Martinsville and, you know, just let it blow over. And our sponsor said, no, you're going too far and made us go ahead go through with it. Biggest mistake we ever made. You know, the quotes that we have from all these articles can give you a sense of the tension and the frustrations

that brought on the split. But you've got to feel like they could have fixed this. You've got to feel like that could have worked it out. David, he still could get it done. Of course, he's at the tail end of his career, but as we're going to later learn in this season, the Silver Fox had a little left in the tank. So who would fill the seat that's now vacant in the number 21?

Enter Neil Bonnet. Neil had shown a lot of promise behind the wheel, winning many races in the sportsmen ranks and even a couple of the Cup races back in 1977 for J.D. Stacey. But after his opportunities began running dry in the cup garage, he found himself at a crossroads in his career. He began seeking out opportunities in the USAC champ car ranks and was actually at a test at Ontario Speedway when he got the call from Glenwood about the 21 car. the chance to drive a proven winner like the Wood Brothers ride would be the greatest opportunity in his career to date. The Woodbrothers Shop is in Stewart, Virginia, and it just so happens that the next race is just 30 miles away at Martinsville Speedway.

Before we head to the next race, let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. When Richard Petty rolls into Martinsville Speedway, he tells the media, we have as good a chance to win as anyone else here. The thing about that is Richard Petty had not won on the short tracks since the November Bristol race in 1975. I mean, this is the king. That's the long stretch of not winning short track races. Polsitter Darrell Waltrip had a new car, nicknamed Dolly, and he would set out the lead the first 49 laps of the race. Petty would assume the lead after that.

Buddy Baker, he's going to lead several laps as well during the race. One of the biggest surprises of the day, though, I love these type of stories. James Hilton, this is a independent running on a shoestring budget. He shows up to the racetracks, and he has the equipment set up to finish the race, not be ultra-competitive. He's not going to push the car beyond its limits. He's actually going to run very conservatively in all these races that he attends, but he's going to get to the end.

That's his moniker. That's how he makes a living. But on this day, he surprises everyone. Running second most of the race, he even led for seven laps. His engine would give him troubles late in the race, and he would wind up finishing seventh. Now, how did this happen? How does this independent show up and have such a strong run? He credits a special motor. They spend a little extra money on for this particular race.

but the damage to this engine late in the race is now going to force the team back to that conservative approach. This is a great sort of note, a footnote for the Independent back in 1979. You get a sponsor with a little bit of money for a race or you somehow find a little money and you're lured into investing in an engine or something that's going to make you competitive. And as we talked about, these motors were not very durable for any of the teams.

And you spend that money, you go out, you have this great run going, and, man, right at the end of the race, the motor breaks apart. All of that money, nearly wasted. You have to pull out that old reliable engine, the back of the shop, and go back to the racetrack the next week and sold your own hoping for a top 10. And as he's done for the past 499 laps, Richard Petty brings the STP Chevrolet. Towards the bottom of the race track, he eases up a bit to the high groove and brings it toward the finish line. He comes across and takes the-year 30 laps of this race and break his four-year short-track drought. He's going to be followed across the finish line by Buddy Baker, Darrell Walter, Bobby Allison, and Joe Milliken. He's going to have him a top-five finish.

This would be Richard Petty's 15th. win at Martinsville. Impressive. He's going to win $26,700 when he goes to the pay window. The Wood Brothers and Neil Bonnet partnership would not get off to a great start. Bernie, I'm in the pits with Neil Bonnet. Neil, you had to fall out of the race. I know it was disappointing in your very first one with the Woodbrother.

Well, Ned, you know, this thing was kind of tough coming here with his short... While Bonnet and the Wood brothers are struggling in Martinsville, Pearson seems happy outside of the country. Cup garage, working on its farm and driving the occasional sportsman race to pass the time. Now, he didn't mention Dad at this race at all. It was pretty unspectacular. He qualifies 11th, and he finishes 8th. An opportunity, I think, you know, he's a short track guy. Wonder why they struggled and didn't have much better run. But Dad writes an article, writes another column. He's got this bi-monthly series, and this is the third installment. And we're going to pull this one

from the Daily Independent from Canapolis, North Carolina. I believe this article would show up in many publications. So let's get started. Talk about coming back down to Earth in a hurry. One Sunday, I'm in Victory Circle at Bristol, and the next week I can't even make the starting field during the first day of qualifying at Darlington. I thought we had enough problems at the Darlington race,

but then we went to Martinsville and never did get everything right on the car. It handled fine, but we kept getting beat coming off the corners. Just never could get everything dialed in. So there's a little explanation on this sort of ho-hum Martinsville result. He continues. Boy, have we got to have it all together for this month. We start May with the Winston 500 at Talladega, and we wind up with the World 600 at Charlotte.

Did you know that we were actually going to race more miles in competition during May than any other month? It's definitely not the time to have problems. We had the longest and the most serious team meeting we've ever had Monday morning after Martinsville. We get one off weekend and then it's May. Our guys have got a lot of work to do because we all came out of that meeting agreeing that May would be a good time for us to win another race. Let's get back to Darlington. The old racetrack was giving me a fit when we first got there.

Most people have trouble with the third and fourth turns, but not me. I couldn't get through turns one and two. I was frustrated at first, but after I talked with a lot of other drivers, I started to feel better. Donnie Allison was a tremendous help. He watched me from the top of one of the trucks, and then he gave me some tips on how to get through the turn one and two into the speedway. His advice made me change the way I was driving Darlington a little, and we made one spring change at his suggestion as well, so Donnie was also giving him some setup tips. And by race time, dad says he was ready. Jake and the guys had our old car running good when the Darlington race started.

I'd led a few laps and had already figured out that I could run with just about anybody. I was feeling really good and then the engine let go. We were running third when a rod broke and it was still early in the race. We were a little slow on changing engines and I must have been about 35 laps down when we went back out. Even then the car was running exceptionally good. I even actually made up a lap. but we were so far out of it that it didn't make much difference. Anyway, going back into the race like that, it let me get some more time on the Darlington track.

It made me feel good, too, because the guys, they didn't get disgusted, and they didn't give up just because we blew the motor. When I got back home from Darlington, people were still calling to congratulate me about the win at Bristol. I don't know how many calls or letters I got. I even got a mail gram from the guys in the Marshall Tucker band. How about that? I tried to take a little time off around Easter weekend. I went down to do a little fishing, but the wind was really bad.

We ended up moving over to Lake Hickory, and we caught 25 crappy in the rain, and we did some night catfishing as well over in another lake and got 40 pounds using cut shad for bait. But I never was totally relaxed. I had one thing staring me right in the face, and that was that I had to roof my mother's house. Listen, if I had to be a carpenter, I'd starve to death. up and down those dang ladders half inch sheets of plywood they're heavy

I didn't hit my finger but twice and that was on the first day I swore I wouldn't hit it after that and it worked but I don't ever want to have to roof another house there's not a lot to say about Martinsville Petty he spent most of the time

with me telling me how to get around the track but the car just wouldn't come off the corners the best thing about Martinsville was the crowd around our truck after the race I gave away exactly 1,000 color postcards, and I must have signed 500 of them. I know it was 1,000 because that's how many we had in the box. But it's May racing now.

I'm looking forward to going back to Talladega. I like the draft, and I like that big speedway. Boy, he would. He'd win a lot of races there. Man, I finished 12th down there last year in a Soso car. I bet Will Cronkite doesn't want to hear that. But we got the Buick that led to the Bueck. Daytona 500 and he got that ready.

We made some changes in it and I think it will be even better than it was in Daytona. We might just do okay in Talladega. Nashville's coming up too. I've run pretty good there in some sportsmen races. Got second and third at Nashville in the last couple of times I've been there. And Jake's got a ticket for setting up cars at that racetrack. Dover's after that and that's a whole new ball game. Dover will be a total surprise for me.

And I understand what Dad's saying. Dover is a very intimidating racetrack, and if you've never been there, it's tough to learn. It's just intimidating diving down into those high banks. And then he says, it's off to Charlotte in the World 600. I'll be back home. Charlotte has always been good to me. Well, it's never been bad to me. Let's just put it that way.

Charlotte is special to us. That's where the shop is, and it's where all the guys live. Everybody I know will be at the World 600. And he really means that. Everyone that he knows in his small world in 1979 is going to be at this race. It might just be a very good way for us to finish the month out. So that's it. I mean, you can tell Dad is a little disappointed by a couple of the results like Martinsville.

Gives us a decent explanation on the struggles, but that month of May sounds daunting. But he is excited about some of the racetracks they're coming up to. And the funny thing, man, about Talladega, oh, I love that speedway. he would go on to dominate that place. Outside of Daytona, I don't know another track that he seemed to master more than that. 2.66 miles of racing asphalt in the heartland of Alabama, and they cover this race track at over a football field a second. Going into the first race of the season at NASCAR's fastest track, Daledega,

drivers were concerned with the high speeds and the potential dangers. Well, Darrow-Waltrop goes out and sets a pole speed of 195.6, You know, that doesn't sound fast today. That's right around the speeds that we expect when we go to Talladega and Daytona, but in 1979 on this day, it's a new record by five miles an hour. Bobby Allison would qualify Budmore's Ford in 12th, a full six miles per hour slower than Walter. Bobby knew that the boxing nature of the Ford would not be able to contend with the sleek or Oldsmobile 442s

during the qualifying session, but he knew in the drag. that they would be able to race well and be good. Down to the line, green flag is being waved in the field, thunders off into the number one corner. Waltrip comes up through the gearbox quickest, shoots right out ahead and heads off into turn number one and the Winston 500 is under green. When the green flag fell, the cars drafted up to speed,

and the speeds were crazy. The cars look like they're right on the edge of losing control as they fly around the two-and-half-mile-oble. and the complexity of the race would change instantly on lap four. Spin at the start finish line. Three cars, four cars getting into it. It's Caliabro, Benny Parsons, one car flipping over four times. Coming through the travel, Buddy Baker is just taking the lead,

and his car suddenly breaks loose. And he's fish-tanking back and forth. All hell breaks loose. A flat tire was deemed as the culprit for Baker's issues, but Baker's car spends helplessly right in front of the field. And just about all of the front runners are collected up in this nasty crash. Cars sliding everywhere, smoke everywhere, cars sliding right in the groove, trying to not get tagged by oncoming cars, cars sliding down in the grass,

mud going everywhere. Bobby Allison was reportedly in the middle of the crash saying, there were four or five cars wrecking in front of me and four or five cars wrecking behind me. then suddenly had a nice wide open channel right through the middle when a couple of cars went high and a couple went low. The good Lord was driving the car for me. It was a really scary moment for Kel Yarborough. He goes sliding through the dirt,

car nearly flipping over with many Parsons, and the car would come to rest on the apron of the first turn. And it seemed like all the dust had settled and the wreck was over and he climbs out of his car. He's kind of walking around toward the front right by the left front tire. And D.K. O. Rich would slide onto the scene out of control and light leak sort of crash into Dave Marcus's car. And the contact would send Marcus's car into Cald, pinning him between the two cars. Kale was reported as saying, I lost feeling in my legs.

And I thought that I'd gotten both of my legs cut off. Once I was knocked free by the impact, I pulled myself up to the window of Marcus's car. Marcus is still strapped in. Kail's dragging himself over to the window, and he asked, he asked Marcus to look at his legs and see if they were still there. Dave Marcus is flabbergasted. He says Kale was hysterical and he couldn't understand what was going on at first, because Kale looked fine. He said he stayed with Kale until the medical people got there, and he assured him over and over that he indeed did have his legs. What a moment. luckily for kale, he was standing right at his own left front tire, and the bumper of Marcus's car pinned him between the two, so it was metal to rubber.

Kale was quoted as saying if it had been metal to metal, it had been all over. He had to cut his legs off. He was assured that. Marty, we're still in the garage area here. The drivers that were involved are walking around talking to reporters and talking to each other. Dale Earnhard, one of the top rookie contenders is here with us, and the smile that was on your face when you were. won that race at Bristol a few weeks ago is not there now Dale sure is uh I think buddy blew a tire and got out of shape down there and I got out of gas you know cause the scene of smoking everything and got control of my car somebody hit me from the rear and put me in the wall it's just lucky nobody got

hurt seriously the crash took out eight cars including dad nine other cars were damaged but able to continue after repairs even so it is sweet home Alabama for bobby allison and neil bonnet of the Alabama gang. They run one, two, with Donnie Allison a lap down splitting as they come out of turn four. Neil Bonnick, Donnie Allison, and Bobby Allison were able to avoid the crash, and they would give fans in Talladega exactly what they had came for. 80,000 fans were on their feet cheering as the three members of the Alabama gang would swap the lead for the remainder of the race. Donnie would fall out with mechanical issues, and Neil Bonnet would build a 16-second lead. when his motor blew with 40 laps to go.

Another disappointment for the Wood Brothers. Well, ladies and gentlemen, more than 80,000 fans have come to their feet here at Talladega. Here comes. Bobby Allison down for the checkered flag to win. The 10th annual Winston 500, checkered flag on Allison. He wins it. This would allow Bobby to cruise on to victory, finishing a full lap in 50 seconds ahead of Darrell Waltrip.

Darrell had a little damage from the crash on lap four that the team had repaired. Buddy Arrington, another independent. We talk about James Hilton at Martinsville. Well, Buddy Arrington would finish third, his best career finish ever. Richard Petty would run fourth, and Joe Milliken would round out the top five. Another top five for rookie Joe Milliken. We talked about Dad getting swept up in the wreck, and that would be the end of the Little Buick that could.

He'd ran so good with that car at Daytona. The next time the team would end up going to a Super Speedway at Daytona, or Talladega, they would field an Oldsmobile 442 like the more successful Speedway programs. The Oldsmobile was the car to have at Daytona and Talladega back in 1979, man. But I've got a soft spot for that little Buick that he ran at Daytona in that first Daytona 500 appearance. After the race, again, several top drivers were critical of the speeds being reached at Talladega. Kail Yarbril says the speeds are about 10 miles of. hour too fast and when something like this wreck happens, there's absolutely nothing you can do.

It's just simply happening so fast. Bobby Allison is going to win his 55th race of his career and his third race in the 1979 season. He is right in the middle of this championship battle. And it was a memorable weekend for the Allison's because less than 24 hours earlier, Bobby's son, Davy Allison, is going to win his very first feature race at Birmingham Speedway. When the Cup teams make their first journey to the Nashville Fairgrounds for the 1979 season, Joe Milliken would strike back in the rookie of the year battle by earning his first career pole. Now, he's going to lead early on and he's going to battle with J.D. McDuffie,

but eventually fall out on lap 124 with a blown engine. In the final stages of the race, Kell Yarborough would take the lead for Richard Petty and lead the final 83 laps to win. Bobby Allison, Dad, and J.D. McDuffie are going to round out the top five. Cale's day was a turbulent one to say the least. At one point, he's going to lock fenders with McDuffie, and in another time, he spins backwards into the pit wall, losing a lap. Petty would insist that he actually had won the race,

claiming that he had three laps on Cale. Bobby Allison supported Petty's claim and contested that he had even finished second. NASCAR likely hurt. those driver's protests, but ultimately nothing ever came from the claims in the series headed off to Dover. When the teams get to Dover for the Mason-Dixon-500, Neil Bonnet found himself in a bit of a pickle. Y'all remember that IndyCar test that he did in Ontario?

Well, it's actually now culminated into a full-blown effort to go qualify for this year's Indy-500. This year's Indy-500. His Indy-Car effort was having a hard time getting the car qualified into the field they'd had various mechanical issues. Saturday in Dover is going to be his last shot to go to Indy and make the field. Qualifying for Dover was Friday, but it got rained out, and now Bonnet has to choose. Does he go try to make Indy, or does he stay in Dover with the Woodbrothers,

this new opportunity driving the purulator Mercury? Leaving Dover for Andy would force the Woodbrothers to find another pilot or withdraw completely. But I don't think Bonnet gives it a second thought. The opportunity to drive this car in NASCAR could develop into a long-term deal, and he'd be a fool to risk that. Darrell Waltrip's going to lead the field to the green with another pole position. Waltrip stays low side of the rear.

Trouble down on the front stretch. Trouble on the front stretch. It belongs to Ricky Rudd. Jimmy Means getting into another car on the high side. That's Richard Childress, and Richard Petty is involved as well. First caution is out this afternoon. Childers would go to the hospital and get checked out and released, and it seemed like early in the race a lot of different people were going to lead,

but by halfway, it had dwindled down between Neil Bonnet and Kale Yarborough. They swapped the lead back and forth for the last 280 laps of this 500-lap marathon. 500 laps at Dover. With eight laps to go, Kail's got a 10-second lead when J.D. McDuffie spins out of ninth place, and hits the wall. Caution is coming out on Speedway at Jackie A route. This is going to change the whole complexion of this race. A blown tire on Ricky Rudd's car caused J.D. to have to spin to avoid.

And at the time, Yarborough and Bonnet were the only two cars on the lead lap. Kale doesn't come down pit road, but Neil does. Let's see if they'll go with four new tires. They drop it, and yes, they're going to go for four tires. And they're Jared on the Purillator Mercury. Yes, they are. And it's a smart move on their part because, as I said, they have nothing to lose. and everything to gain.

They were out of it with the way that they were running right then, and now with four new tires, it could change the whole complexion. The pace car almost gets run over going up into turn number three as they take it down on the bottom of the track. Here comes. Yarborough. Bonnet dives to the inside on him. Goes after the lead.

Waste no time in doing it at the start finish line. Kale pulls him by half a car length as they hit turn number one. He'll is going to go by Kale and lead the final three laps and win by two car lengths. and he's going to write his name into the rich history books of the Wood Brothers Racing team. He also felt a ton better about that decision to stay in Dover rather than go and attempt to qualify for the Indy 500, and Bonnet would never make another return to Indy. Behind Bonnet and Kale were third place Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison, and Dad with another top five finish. Bobby Allison is going to take over the points lead after the race when Darrow-Waltrow blows an engine early on.

the Dygard crew would manage to change Waltrip's engine in 18 minutes. That's insane. I mean, I was 18 minutes. I think that's like how long it takes to change the oil at the dealership. He's going to finish 18th in the race, 38 laps down, and Richard Petty being involved in that lap through crash

would finish 30th. Dad had a solid qualifying effort starting in sixth place, but again, he never led at any point during, in the contest, and even though he gets that top five finish, in this race, he's three laps behind the leaders. The last few weeks have been mixed results for Dad and his team. They were finishing well on the stat sheet, but they're not leading any laps, and they're also not even finishing on the lead lap.

Maybe a homecoming is just what they need. They're going to get back to Charlotte, sleep in their own beds, mentally have a reset, and get ready for a showdown in front of all of their fans. family and friends. More becoming Earnhardt coming right up. Late May and the Charlotte Motor Speedway, they just go hand in hand. As long as I can remember, this event has been an Earnhardt family favorite. But it goes even deeper than that for me.

See, my grandfather, Robert G. lives less than a mile from the track. So even after my mom and dad were divorced in 1978, she and eventually her husband, Willie Jackson would always make the trip from Norfolk, Virginia each year. The 600 was always a great experience for me as a child. Now, I don't remember being there in 1979, but I'm going to assume between mom or dad I was enjoying the festivities, and hopefully I was eating one of Robert G's signature steaks straight off the grill. Man, those things were good.

Dad's going to be the first to file entry for this event. That's really not a notable moment usually, but I found in our article, Dad says he's stopped by the race shop one morning last week to pack up his gear for Talladega, and he happened to notice the World 600 entry blank in the morning mail, so he had the secretary type it up, it was signed in the proper places, and he drives it over to the Speedway on his way home and turns it in himself. He says, I didn't think too much about it at the time, but I'd be lying if I said the World 600 wasn't important to me. Qualifying for the first round would be on Wednesday, and the first 15 positions were determined by a four-lap average.

Where have you heard that before? That's right, the Indy 500. These two races fall right around that same weekend, and NASCAR, and Humpty Wheeler thought it was a great idea. So they're going to run four laps too. So you average the four laps together to determine the poll winner and unhappy with his result on Wednesday. Dad's going to post the fastest time in second round qualifying again. Now, second round qualifying was the traditional two-lap run. He's going to start in 16th, and he did this on the first of two laps.

He says the trouble with Wednesday during first round qualifying was because the car was never comfortable. They had a few problems with the front end suspension, and the car was never right. Today, well, it was almost right. Coming off the first turn of the first lap, Dad said the car got really loose. He couldn't figure out what was going on, and on the second lap, it got worse. When he slowed down and came to pit road, he noticed he had a flat tire. By the time he got to the garage, it's entirely. flat, so close call there.

Now, all of us here at Dirty Moe Media, we love to hear stories about innovation, or quite literally cheating. NASCAR teams are always looking for an advantage, and Lenny Pond's team was no different heading into the World 600 at Charlotte. During inspection, NASCAR pulled the right side tires from Pons car, and they found that they had been tampered with, a piece of rubber with the Charlotte Motor Speedway Code listed by Goodyear, had been glued over the original code number. which happened to be a softer compound.

So they took a softer tire and just changed the code. The crew chief got fined just $250 per tire. Man, you'd think that'd be a more severe penalty. Also, driver Bobby Wawak was disqualified entirely when he refused to comply with NASCAR officials and open a panel on the right side of his car where it was suspected he might be carrying nitrous oxide. Nitrosoxide, I'm just going to assume, was in every car.

Neil Bonnet was set the fastest time and grabbed the pole position for the race and this is a bright spot for the team outside of the win at Dover and Bonnet was under a massive amount of pressure to try to get this pole position at Charlotte and the reason why is because the Wood brothers and David Pearson had won the last 11 pole positions at Charlotte. It's insane. So Neil was feeling good about that, getting an even dozen. This would indeed be the largest crowd ever to view a stock car race in the whole United States

of America, bar none. And the facility here is packed solid. They've had people walking into the infield. No cars have been allowed since 8 a.m. this morning. It is by far and away the largest sporting crowd in North Carolina history. And I would say one of the largest in the country for 1979. 135,000 fans were in attendance for the World 600. And this race would absolutely deliver for every single one of them, as well as many more, tuning in on CBS and the Motor Racing Network. We'll make up the race this afternoon. It's right now Darrell Walterp is showing the way, and Jackie, they can't seem to gain any ground on him.

One day after winning the 300-mile NASCAR sportsman race, Darrell Walchrop is continuing right where he left off as he shows he has speed in his car. But he's not the only one. Ten different drivers would swap the lead a total of 59 times in this race, and Dad, he was one of them. Seven cars continue to work the lead draft, But right now, they can't slow Earnhardt down.

This youngster from Codaple's, North Carolina, flexing is driving talent here this afternoon as they worked the south end of the track. Throughout the early part of the race, Dad and the other drivers were maintaining a furious pace. There were 13 lead changes in the first 50 laps of the race. Think about that for a second. The pace was so heated that crew chief Jake Elder commented to the media several times during the event that the car would not last if Dad didn't

slow his pace. Well, it looks like the kids doing okay out there. Yeah, I think he's running about too hard right now. You do? Would you like to see him slow down a little bit? I hope he does. Can't you tell him to do on that radio? I told him why I go to slowdown, because it's a long race. Because if you don't, he's going to wear his stuff out.

Dad did not slow down. In front of his family and hometown crowd, he would lead 12 times for a total of 121 laps on the day. But it was lapsed that he didn't lead that got all the attention. Now with Darry Walter out front, Dad and Richard Petty engaged in a furious battle in the final laps for second place. Earnhardt goes down underneath. He's not second place, but let's not count out Richard Petty. He goes underneath Dale Earnhardt and reappropriate second spot. Dad and Petty would swap positions three times in the last lap before the king would get the rookie at the finish line.

Dad didn't win and he didn't even get the position he was racing for at the end, but, as the old saying goes, they knew he was there. Dad and his Australand team earned a ton of respect in this World 600, none more than from the king himself. Finishing behind Darrell Walsrop, Richard Petty and Dad, Arkell Yarborough and Benny Parsons. From Victory Lane, Darrell Waltrop had some nice things to say about Dad after the race. Well, he run a heck for race.

And, you know, he's a tremendous driver. He's got a great future ahead of him. and looks like when everybody else is kind of gone and laying by the wayside, that's who I'm going to have to fight with. Richard Petty would acknowledge Dad's great performance. He goes over to Dad's car after the race and sticks his head in there and says, Where are you been, boy? Must have been pretty cool to get a comment like that from the King.

After racing him side by side, the last lap, no less. Dad was asked in the Media Center post-race about how he felt running in front of the pack with the superstars. He says, I'm not uneasy at all. I just hope that they have confidence in me. An hour after the race, Dad would sit on a stool in the garage, surrounded by more than 100 admirers and autograph seekers. And he says, quote,

I never thought my career would be like this so soon. Nearby, Martha Earnhardt would remark, Ralph told Dale if he was ever going to make it in racing, he had to run asphalt. He wouldn't help Dale a great deal because he wanted him to do it for himself. I think Ralph felt someday, Dale would do something like he did today.

In fact, lots of times I wonder that Ralph might well know what's going on here. Dad thinks back to all the hours working on his own cars in Ralph's garage after Ralph's death in 1973. He'd even sometimes catch himself asking Ralph a question out loud. In other nights, he'd be in there finding himself alone, crying for hours. Dad says, I realize my situation and that back, back then I had a battle to win within myself. I'm winning that battle. That is incredible because he recognized when he lost his father that he too had become lost.

And he somehow mentally pulled himself back together after losing something that was so important in his life, such a guiding influence. I think it's so tremendous and so incredible and inspiring, really, that he's. He was able to not only pull himself back together and become productive, but also achieve a dream and make it to the big time. Next time on Becoming Earnhardt. After earning the respect of the NASCAR Cup Garage, thanks to his refusal to back down from any challenger, Dad looks to add another win to his resume and get ahead in the tight rookie of the year battle. But is growing confidence and aggressiveness behind the wheel? would catch up to him.

An in ominous early season prediction spoken by crew chief Jake Elder would become a reality. Suddenly, NASCAR's most promising rookie prospect would face adversity like he'd never known before. Becoming Earnhardt is a podcast series

by Dirty Mo Media. It is written and produced by myself, Dellenhart Jr., with Bobby Marcos and Mike Davis. Sound design by Ben Potts. Production assistance by Tiff Powers, Michael Caldwell, Dustin Lee, James Brossan, Andrew Curlin, and Alex Thames. This project is in partnership with NASCAR, NASCAR Productions, and the Motor Racing Network. For full replays of classic races, visit the Motor Racing Network's website at mrn.com.

Race broadcast audio you heard in this episode was brought to you by the Universal Racing Network, and it was made available to us by the Appalachian State Library Stock Car Racing Collection. Special thanks to Doug Rice of Performance Racing Network, Chris Swartz of Motor Racing Network, Eli Gold, Deb Williams, Doug Reichert, Kathy Earnhardt Wachens, and Kay Earnhardt Snipes. Special thanks to Cadence 13 and Silver Tribe Media. For additional content on Becoming Earnhardt, including exclusive videos, visit Dirtymo Media's YouTube page and follow us on. on all major social media platforms.