Eric's Life And Times Of Dale
Earnhardt... continued - 1995-1997
1995
In 1995, Dale came OH SO CLOSE
to making it three in a row and winning that record eighth championship.
Dale won 5 races and scored 19 top fives and 23 top ten finishes in 31
starts. He unfortunately finished a close second to a young man by
the name of Jeff Gordon... This was Gordon's first championship,
leading to some horrible years of Gordon domination to follow! (I
told you this guy was trouble!) The fans of these two men, more so
than the men themselves, would become major rivals for years to come!
Upon losing the championship to Gordon by only 34 points Earnhardt was
quoted as saying "It's good to end a season so clean. But Don't ask
what it's like finishing second in points. Everybody knows what I
think of second."... "Gordon is so young (24) they're going to serve
his team milk at the awards banquet in New York instead of champagne."
Gordon responded by toasting Earnhardt during his award speech in New York...
With a glass of milk.
After a few years of Luminas, the
Monte Carlo was back for 1995.
Dale's car for 'The Winston' in
1995 had this special silver paint scheme.
The scheme was a tribute to Winston's
25th year as sponsor of the series!
Dale won the Brickyard 400 in 1995!
This was only the second year for
NASCAR at the Brickyard.
Races Run:
31
Wins:
5
Top Fives:
19
Top Tens:
23
Poles:
3
Final Standing:
2nd place
Total Winnings:
$3,154,241
1996
Dale won two races in 1996 and
scored 13 top fives and 17 top ten finishes in 31 starts. He was
in a three way fight for the championship when he was injured in a severe
crash at Talladega in July. This basically ended his hopes of winning
the championship, though he didn't miss any races due to his injuries which
included a broken sternum and broken left collarbone. Despite those
terrible injuries, Earnhardt competed in the Brickyard 400 the next week,
and won the pole for Watkins Glen just two weeks after the crash!
This was the last pole of his career.
This Olympic paint scheme was Dale's
car for the The Winston in 1996.
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Dale drove this #3 AC Delco car
in a NASCAR exhibition race in Japan after the 1996 season. It looks
just like the car car that DEI driver Steve Park drove in the Busch Series
the next year in 1997. Dale's son, Dale Jr., then drive the Busch
car in 1998 and 1999.
Races Run:
31
Wins:
2
Top Fives:
13
Top Tens:
17
Poles:
2
Final Standing:
4th place
Total Winnings:
$2,285,926
1997
Not a single win for Dale in 1997...
And lucky me, this is about the time when I really started to get into
NASCAR!!! Dale noticed that the boos from the stands were coming
for Jeff Gordon now rather than himself... He didn't like that, he
said "I wish they were booing me. If they boo you on Sunday, you
go to the bank on Monday. I don't want to be the guy who's not the
hero, but I want to be the winner." Then there was the scary incident
when he hit the wall at Darlington in the first turn on the first lap,
for no apparent reason.... He slowly tried to drive around to his
pit stall, but missed the turn in and had to drive all the way around again...
He got onto pit road and had to be helped from the car and carried to the
infield care center. He had no memory of that period of time whatsoever.
He was tested for everything imaginable, but doctors could find nothing
wrong with him, and it never happened again, but the black out was pretty
scary at the time. Earnhardt and his fans were very relieved to find
out that nothing was wrong with him. Despite not winning any races,
Dale did score 7 top five's and 16 top ten finishes in 32 starts.
He also became the first race car driver to be featured on a box of Wheaties!
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The Wheaties car was Dale's special
paint scheme for The Winston All Star race in 1997.
Dale became the first race car
driver ever to be featured on a Wheaties box!
This is the car that Dale drove
in the Japan exhibition race after the end of the 1997 Winston Cup season.
It is AC Delco once again. I like it better with the red than the
white in 1996.
The crash below is the 1997 Daytona
500 where Dale was involved in a terrible crash, flipping end over end,
and still managed to drive the car back around the track. He refused
to get in the ambulance when he saw that the car still had four wheels
on it after the crash, and he got back in it to finish the race after pitting
to get taped up! All I can say is... AMAZING!!! I think
most other drivers would have just given up at this point, but not Dale
Earnhardt with his competitive determination and "Dale Earnhardt toughness!"
Races Run:
32
Wins:
0
Top Fives:
7
Top Tens:
16
Poles:
0
Final Standing:
5th place
Total Winnings:
$2,151,909
Continue...1998-1999 To continue with the Life And Times
Of Dale Earnhardt (from 1998-1999), click above.
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+ Dale Earnhardt Fan Page, click on the banner below.
This site was created
in February, 2001, and last edited on January 25, 2007. If you have
any questions or comments, please
e-mail me at ericunderwood@hotmail.com Click here to go back
to my main page.
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