Browse > Home / Archive by category 'Dale Earnhardt'

NASCAR Pictures: The Earnhardts at Daytona 2001

User Avatar

by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

February 7, 2010 5:25 pm CST No Comments

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


The best thing about being part of On Pit Row is the people we get to meet and talk to. Racing fans are passionate about their sport.

We broadcast On Pit Row live from the Original Ginos Pizza and Grill in Toledo. It’s a great place for us and the show. There is a real racing atmosphere. And the pizza is the best. Seriously. But we get a great opportunity to talk to race fans during and after the show.

Last week, a fan brought in some pics he had taken during the 2001 Daytona 500. Wally is a Dale Earnhardt Sr. fan. There are some very cool shots of Senior alone at the track that fateful week. There are pictures of Teresa Earnhardt, Dale Sr with Dale Jr and Kerry Earnhardt. I really like the pic of Dale and Teresa Earnhardt holding hands. And the photo of Earnhradt Senior with his two sons. Enjoy.

Dale Earnhardt 2001 Daytona
Dale Earnhardt and his boys
Dale and Teresa Earnhardt strolling the pits Daytona 2001

Bud Shootout driver line up at Daytona 2001
3 - Daytona 2001
Senior at Daytona 2001

Earnhardt in the garage Daytona 2001
Dale Earnhardt with Jeff Burton Daytona 2001
Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Sr at Daytona 2001

Earnhardt Daytona 2001
Goodwrench no 3 at Daytona 2001
Earnhardt climbing in - Daytona 2001

Senior at Daytona 2001

If you use any of these pics, please give attribution to Wally for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, Jeff Burton, NASCAR, NASCAR photos, Nascar Legends, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio 

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

NASCAR History: Car Number 44 and Terry Labonte

User Avatar

by James Jones, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

January 1, 2010 9:24 am CST No Comments

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.

NASCAR car number 44 Terry Labonte and Piedmont Airlines sponsorToday’s number is one that I looked forward to spotlighting in the car number countdown to the Daytona 500. This is because car #44 was one of my favorites back in the mid ’80s. I have childhood memories of getting a large plastic toy car for Christmas with the #44 and Piedmont Airlines logo stickers all over it. I remember getting the diecast Piedmont Airlines airplane each time my parents would stick me on a plane flying out of Cincinnati, OH to Orlando, FL. It was there that I would spend my summer break from school with my grandparents and my uncle Terry. And it is my uncle Terry who I give credit for my love of NASCAR. Most all of my fondest memories from childhood revolve around my uncle, and many of those include the simple things such as playing checkers or UNO and drinking a Mountain Dew (out of a glass bottle!) while watching a NASCAR race on TV. Yeah, spotlighting the #44 is going to be cool for me.

NASCAR Cup champion Terry Labonte

Stats for cars running the #44:

  • Number of Races: 884
  • Number of Wins: 13
  • Number of Top 5s: 155
  • Number of Top 10s: 314
  • Number of Poles: 27
  • Number of Drivers: 89

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Driver Terry Labonte

Now sure, most people are going to associate Terry Labonte with the #5. After all, the #5 is the car number he closed out his full time career in. Also, he ran 368 races in the #5 versus 259 races in the #44 earlier in his career. But his average finish was slightly better in the #44 car with a 14.4 average versus 17.4. One thing is for sure though, and that is that Terry’s thirty year career has been an impressive one making him one of the most respected and liked drivers in the Cup garage and with the fans.

Terry came into the Cup series on fire starting only five races in the 1978 Cup season for car owner Billy Hagan (whom he would drive for from 1978 through 1986). He would have 1 top five, 2 top tens in his first three starts. The final two races were DNFs due to mechanical failure and a wreck. He didn’t slow down in 1979 either when he ran his first full season competing for Rookie of the Year honors. Coming up short for the Rookie title, he did manage to finish in the top ten in points for the season. The following year Terry would take his first win in Winston Cup competition at Darlington Raceway. Twenty-three years and twenty victories between, Terry would score his 22nd and final victory in Cup competition again at Darlington.

NASCAR Cup champion Terry LabonteTerry, known for his calmness under pressure on the track, had the nickname of “The IceMan.” He always just seemed to show up there at the end of the race in the right position and with opportunity to take a win. In 1984 and 1996, The IceMan took top honors by bringing home the Championship trophy to his car owners Hagan and Hendrick, respectively. He has finished in the top 10 season standings an outstanding seventeen times! Other honors include the 1993 and 1989 IROC Championships, the 1988 and 1999 The Winston Champion (now the All Star Challenge), and in 1998 being named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. In 2004 Terry announced the season would be his last full time season. Over the last few years he’s driven part time rides for teams such as Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, and Hall of Fame Racing.

With a career spanning 30 years (and counting) it’s interesting to note that Terry almost exclusively ran General Motors cars other than 3 races in a Toyota (2007 fill in for Michael Watlrip Racing) and the 1989 season in which he ran a Ford for Junior Johnson. Out of those 851 races and 22 wins, it’s hard not to look at his 1995 win at Bristol as one of the most exciting. Four years later, Terry would show Earnhardt how to make a last-lap clean-pass for a win only to once again be given the knock spinning Terry out.

1995 Goody’s 500 victory while wrecking

Filed under: Bristol Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt, James Jones, NASCAR, NASCAR History, Terry Labonte 

Tagged with: , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

NASCAR History: Car Number 47 and Jack Beebe

User Avatar

by James Jones, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

December 29, 2009 3:52 pm CST No Comments

Gold Number 47Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.

I found myself with a bit of challenge for number 47. Instead of putting the spotlight on a driver named Jack with the most Cup success in the #47 (Jack Smith, who has twenty-one career wins), I’m going to direct the attention to a car owner named Jack Beebe.Ron Bouchard's car number 47.

Stats for cars running the #47

  • Number of Races: 753
  • Number of Wins: 24
  • Number of Top 5s: 131
  • Number of Top 10s: 258
  • Number of Poles: 29
  • Number of Drivers: 58

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Car Owner Jack Beebe

From 1978 to 1986 car owner Jack Beebe fielded a car in 211 Cup races resulting in 2 wins, 32 top fives, and 82 top tens. In his 9 years of car ownership he employed only 5 different drivers, but he ran only one car number, the #47.

Of those 5 drivers, 4 of them are pretty well known. Can you guess who they are?

  1. One is now also known for his work with bobsleds.
  2. One was considered a “handsome” “high line runner.”
  3. One has a brother, and both of them won Winston Cup Rookie of the Year.
  4. The final driver is a roller-skating veteran who races for Jesus.

I’m betting most of you readers figured them all out except for the brothers. Am I right?

If you guessed Geoff Bodine (Bo-Dyn Bobsled project), Harry Gant, Ron Bouchard (brother is Ken Bouchard), and Morgan Shepherd, then you’re good!

Geoff Bodine’s stay in the car was the shortest of all drivers (only 3 races vs. Satch Worley’s 4 races in the Beebe owned #47). From what I’ve been able to find, Beebe was somehow in the school bus business in Connecticut prior to his venture into NASCAR and was giving Bodine his Winston Cup debut in his cars. It seems that Bodine expressed some negative comments about the Beebe organization. Bodine was let go after only 3 races, he wouldn’t return to a full time Winston Cup ride for another 3 years.

Harry Gant in the number 47 car.Enter driver Harry Gant. The opportunity to race for Jack Beebe’s ride would be Gant’s first full season in Winston Cup. He would contend for Rookie of the Year honors, but the rookie competition was stiff that year with Terry Labonte and eventual Rookie of the Year winner Dale Earnhardt.

Sticking with a similar pattern as Bodine and Gant, next would be rookie Ron Bouchard’s debut in Winston Cup competition. Unlike Bodine, Ron would keep the ride full time. And unlike Gant, Bouchard would claim the Rookie of the Year title. Although Ron only had one career victory, it came in grand style, at a grand track, by sneaking the win from two drivers who eventually became Winston Cup champions. The race was at Talladega and the win came down to the last turn of the last lap. Terry Labonte and Darrell Waltrip battled for the lead as NASCAR driver Morgan ShepherdBouchard cut under both of them and took the win in an exciting photo finish!

In 1986 Morgan Shepherd’s name was above the driver’s window net. He would race in what would become Jack Beebe’s final 12 races in Winston Cup competition. But of those 12 races, Morgan Shepherd would take the car to 6 top 10 finishes and 1 win for Jack Beebe. The win would come at the beginning of the 1986 season at Atlanta and it would be Morgan’s second of four career victories to date, and Jack Beebe’s final victory as car owner.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR, NASCAR History, Terry Labonte 

Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

NASCAR’s First Hall of Fame Class Gets all A’s

User Avatar

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

October 15, 2009 1:20 am CDT No Comments

NASCAR’s first Hall of Fame class has been announced.

There were no surprises.  It would be impossible to find fault with any of the picks.  The Bill France’s, Senior and Junior were included along with Richard Petty, Junior Johnson and Dale Earnhardt.  All are deserving to be in The Hall.  But were they the best choices as the inaugural class?

Big Bill France was a shoo-in; after all with out his vision and tenacity the rest would be irrelevant.  Big Bill organized a bunch of rouge drivers and track owners and made a respectable show with them.  No longer would drivers have to worry whether the track owner would be heading out the pit gate with the receipts two laps before the end of the feature.

Richard Petty was and is the most recognizable name and face in NASCAR. No one will ever come close to his two-hundred career wins.  Yes, it was a different era; racing two or three nights a week.  But that makes the feat even more impressive.  The track variety in Petty’s early years proves his versatility.

Junior Johnson was the face of NASCAR in its earliest days.  He was the true NASCAR pioneer; moving from the back roads with moonshine in his trunk to a true race car driver.  Johnson’s wins as a driver and then as a car owner and crew chief makes his entry into the Hall of Fame a no-brainer.

Bill France, Jr. was instrumental in bringing the sport into the modern era.  The pull out of manufacturer support in the early seventies could have put the sport into a tail spin  that it may have never recovered from, but Junior was instrumental in bringing in a title sponsor and moving the sport into the television era.

The inductee with the most fan support is Dale Earnhardt.  Earnhardt’s championships and his fan polarization made him a natural to be inducted into the first class of the Hall.

Cases could be made for others to have been in the first class, but it is impossible to find fault with this group.  The next five classes of five each will be pretty easy to fill as well.  Just look at the drivers who were in the sweet sixteen of ON PIT ROW’s 64 Greatest Driver Tournament to see the best of the best.  Add in the off track contributors and there is no dearth of candidates to fill the classes to come.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media Inc.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR 64 Greatest Driver Tourney, NASCAR Hall of Fame, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The King 

Tagged with: , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Don’t Put Dale Earnhardt In The NASCAR Hall Of Fame, At Least Not Yet

User Avatar

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

If OnPitRow.com was a NASCAR team, I’d be the development driver of the bunch. In the same way that young hotshots like Joey Logano have been driving since they were in grade school, I’ve been following and writing about all forms of motorsports since I was barely old enough to talk.

October 13, 2009 7:51 pm CDT 1 Comment

Call me a lover of controversy, call me a rebel, call me what you will - I do not want to see Dale Earnhardt inducted as one of the first members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

For those of you not in the know, the new attraction’s first five inductees (out of a previously announced pool of 25) will be announced on Wednesday at 4 PM on SPEED Channel. As NASCAR is the most recent sport out of the “big five” to create a hall of fame, the first five men to be enshrined in the hall will receive a great honor.

Now, all 25 members of that list deserve to be Hall of Famers. There’s not a soul on there that didn’t do his part to make NASCAR what it was in the past, and what it is today. Whether an old-timer like Herb Thomas or Raymond Parks, or a still-active member of the sport like Rick Hendrick or Darrell Waltrip, they all ought to go in within the first five years.

Earnhardt, obviously, has a strong case. He has 76 Sprint Cup wins as a driver, seventh on the all-time list. He has seven championships, tied with Richard Petty for the most in NASCAR Sprint Cup. His 1987 Sprint Cup season, where he had 11 wins and 24 top-10s in 29 races, may be one of the best statistical seasons in NASCAR history.

Add 21 Nationwide and 11 IROC wins as a driver, and 47 wins over NASCAR’s top three series as an owner (counting from 1995, when he first started fielding full-time Busch and SuperTruck teams, through the 2001 Daytona 500), and Earnhardt is one of the most successful figures in NASCAR history. Few can claim more successes on the track, besides perhaps the Petty family.

So where does some Northern kid like me get off on saying that the Intimidator ought to wait a couple years to get in the Hall of Fame?

Simple: I think the pioneers of the sport ought to go in first.

My other passion in life besides sports is music, and although I generally criticize the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for being a letdown, they’ve gotten at least one thing right. When the Hall was first established, its voters decided to induct the founders of the genre - men like Ray Charles, Little Richard, and Fats Domino - over such dominant bands as the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones.

This move ensured that memories of the founding fathers of rock and roll would be preserved, and re-introduced the public to those figures during its first few years, when those other important, but chronologically later, bands weren’t in the Hall.

Transcending boundaries of art and sport, I think the philosophy fits. NASCAR has claimed to be a tradition-oriented sport in the past, and we all know that its fans enjoy tradition. Changes to cater to the shaky West Coast crowd on television have not been well-received in the past, partially because they have messed with tradition. I contend that if NASCAR really wants to get back to its roots, the announcement of its first five Hall of Fame inductees is a key cog in the equation.

Thankfully, the voting committee is made up of many who were in the sport long before its modernization of the 1990s and 2000s, and not too many NASCAR representatives (or an overwhelming fan vote), so I’m hoping that they will share my sentiments. Inducting members chronologically, and not based on popularity, seems like the best way to do NASCAR’s rich and storied history justice.

So here’s to my ballot - Red Byron, Herb Thomas, Raymond Parks, Lee Petty, and Big Bill France - making it in the first year.

We all know that the Earnhardt fans will keep coming back until he gets in.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR Hall of Fame, Nascar Legends 

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Dale Earnhardt Edges David Pearson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Tourney

User Avatar

by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

June 24, 2009 1:02 pm CDT 4 Comments

It’s Earnhardt at the flag!

After over 60 head-to-head match ups between 64 of NASCAR’s Greatest All-time drivers, the votes are in. In hundreds of blog comments, Twitter tweets and radio interviews,  On Pit Row’s listeners and readers narrowly chose Dale Earnhardt as the winner of our 64 Greatest Drivers of NASCAR Tournament at Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie.

Earnhardt’s supporters gave him victories over Bobby Isaac, Rex White, Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson leading up to the Four Wide Final.

There, The Intimidator’s fans voted him over Darrell Waltrip and finally, David Pearson to win the tourney.

Here is a sample of some of the comments we got from voters in the final face-off between Earnhardt and Pearson.

…Pearson was untouchable at Charlotte and Darlington, Earnhardt the best at Talladega. Had Pearson run full schedules his entire career, who knows how many titles he would have won? Bottom line, though, in a head-to-head race in comparable equipment at almost any track, I’d pick Pearson–unless Earnhardt wrecked him. - Reid Spencer

my vote is for the 7 time champ - Steve1381

For me it has to be a split decision. Dale Earnhardt Sr. gets my vote for charisma, showmanship and heart. While David Pearson for mechanical driving skill, determination and heart.Dream season would have been to have the two on the track at the same time! Now that would have put the butts in the seat. - Zoey

It’s always difficult to compare great drivers who raced in different eras under different circumstances. Are we guaging talent…or impact on the sport? I don’t think there is really a balanced way to compare talent between these two since they didn’t compete. But, in my opinion, Earnhardt’s personal accomplishments and impact on the sport were greater than Pearson’s. - Jeff Gilder

DALE EARNHARDT ALL THE WAY. - donnie lee redd jr.

Dale Earnhardt all the way. Dale is arguably the most talented driver in Nascar history. Seven championships in first sixteen seasons is remarkable. He also started at a much later age than drivers today. Second is point standings at age 49 remarkable achievement. - Dave Watson

Here’s the complete bracket for the tournament. Thanks to everyone.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media Inc

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt, Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR 64 Greatest Driver Tourney, Nascar Legends 

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

« Previous Articles

March Madness

Play the Rattles from the Catch Can contest

Blogroll

Fantasy Sports Partners

Racing Websites

ON PIT ROW at RaceTalkRadio
Backstretch Boys: 30% Off New CD!
Jayski's: See what the buzz is about.

We've got your game.

Advertisement