Dales Stats and Bio

Stats

The following was taken from the Special Commemorative Issue of Sports Illustrated - Dale Earnhardt

1951 - 2001

A Tribute To The Man In Black

The Big E: Tracking His Numbers

Winston Cup racing has had it's formidable figures over the years but none larger than the man in the number 3 car ------- by Richard Deitsch

1951 - Born April 29th, in Kannapolis, N.C.
7 - Winston Cups Championships - 1980, 86, 87, 90, 93, 94 - tying him with Richard Petty for the alltime record.
76 - Career wins, sixth most in Winston Cup history. (Richard Petty leads with 200.)
281 - Career top five finishes, fourth alltime among NASCAR drivers. (Petty is first with 549)
428 - Career top ten finishes, Third best alltime. (Petty is first with 693)
$41,639,662 Career prize money, tops among NASCAR drivers. (Jeff Gordon 2nd with $34,737,676 as of 02/18/2001
676 - Career races, seventh-most among Winston Cup drivers. (Petty leads with 1,177)
95 - Races he did not finish.
53 - Consecutive races he finished from 1996 to '98, a modern-era Winston Cup record.
245,299 - Total miles driven in his 26 year NASCAR career.
0 - Other NASCAR drivers who have matched his feat of winning the Winston Cup Championship (1980) the year after winning the circuit's rookie of the year award (1979).
22 - Career pole positions.
3 - Races won from the pole.
2 - Wins in races he started from the 30th position or lower (2000 Cracker Barrel 500 and 1980 Atlanta 500), tied with Bobby Labonte, the only other driver in modern Winston Cup history with more than one.
22nd - Finish in his first Winston Cup start, the 1975 World 600 at Charlotte, in which his number 8 Dodge started 33rd and finished 45 laps behind winner Richard Petty.
$2,425 His earnings for that race, his only start on the Winston Cup Circuit that year.
$19,800 Prize money for his first Grand National win in the 1979 Southeastern 500 at Bristol International Raceway.
$264,086 Prize money in 1979, his first full year on the circuit.
$3,701,391 Prize money in 2000, his most lucrative year.
529 - Races in which he drove car number 3.
78 - Races in which he drove car number 2.
60 - Races in which he drove car number 15.
4 - Races in which he drove car number 96.
1 - Race each in which he drove cars 8, 19, 30, 77, and 98.
20 - Top 10 finishes in the Winston Cup year-end points standing, a record.
2 - Seasons in which he finished outside the top 10 (12th in 1982 and '92) since joining the circuit full time in '79.
4 - Races in 1999 in which he sported his no-mustache look.
648 - Consecutive starts from 1979 to 2001, seven shy of Terry Labonte's record.
15 - Consecutive years in which he won at least one race (1982-96) (Petty holds the record with 18 yrs, 1960-77)
11 - Victories in 1987, his best single-season total. (Petty's 27 in 1967 is the record.)
4 - Consecutive races he won in 1987, the longest streak of his career; only two NASCAR drivers (Petty and Bobby Allison) have put together longer streaks.
19 - Attempts to win the Daytona 500 before succeeding in 1998 on his 20th try at age 46.
59 - Consecutive races in which he had failed to reach Victory Lane (the longest drought of his career) before that win.
34 - Wins at Daytona International Speedway, tops all time record at that track.
10 - Wins at Talladega, tops alltime at the track tagged Too Tough to Tame.
3 - IROC Championships (1990, 1995, 2000)
5 - Times he was named NMPA driver of the Year: 1980, '86, (tied with Tim Richmond, '87, '90, '94.
10 - Reasons it Took Me 20 Years To Win the Daytona 500", which he presented to host David Letterman and his Late Show audience on Feb. 17, 1998; the No.1 reason was, "My secret to success one can of motor oil in my engine, one can of motor oil in my pants!"
1997 - Year he became the first NASCAR driver to grace the cover of a Wheaties box.
1998 - Year he addressed the National Press Club in Washington D.C., becoming the only NASCAR driver ever to do so. "I didn't get a great education," he said. "But if you want to talk racing, I can tell you where we've come from and where we're going."
2000 - Year he won his final race, the Winston 500 at Talladega.
$65 Cost of a Dale Earnhardt West Virginia license plate.
$3,000 Initial bid on eBay for a signed, race-used Earnhardt driver suit.
$15,099,99 Bid after two days.
$34.95 Price of the Monopoly Dale Earnhardt Collector's Edition board game at Dale Earnhardt Inc. headquarters souvenir store, in Mooresville, N.C.
$27,688 Sticker price for a 2001 Monte Carlo SS at Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet in Newton, N.C.
4.5 million Chickens per year that his poultry farm provides to Perdue Farms.
74 - length, in feet, of Sunday Money, his yacht.
2000 Year in which he purchased partial ownership in the Kannapolis Intimidators of the South Atlantic League, the Class A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
9th Highest grade he reached before devoting his career to racing.
$26.5 million His estimated earnings in 1999, according to Forbes magazine.
11,537 Number of press clippins he had generated as of March 2000, according to Forbes.
29,754 Number of web hits he had generated os of March 2000, according to Forbes.
36th His position on the 2000 Forbes Celebrity 100 list (between Rosie O'Donnell and Oscar De La Hoya), which ranks celebs according to their income and the amount of media buzz that they generate. (Jeff Gordon, at 47th, was the only other NASCAR driver on the list.)