Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. (withfriendship.com)

Dale Earnhardt Sr. was a racing legend. He may not have been as big as Ricky, Bobby and such, but he was close. Earnhardt was born April 29 1951 in Kannapolis, North Carolina and killed in his race car on February 18 2001 in Daytona Florida. His cause of death was Basilar skull fracture from crash in Turn 4 on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt's son was in his car right ahead of his dad. He saw the crash from his in the mirror.

Earnhardt drove the famous #3 black Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The car was completely stripped to a shell and rebuilt to be set up for racing. Under the hood you would find a race modified Corvette engine with a 6 speed manual transimission with 500-550 horsepower. After Earnhardt's fatal crash it was a few years of discussion but they decided that something must be done about the famous racing number, number 3. The final decision was to retire the number so that no other driver may ever use it. The famous number 3 will forever belong to "the Intimidator".

Earnhardt was best known for racing the Winston Cup Series (now the Sprint Cup Series), winning seventy-six races (including one Daytona 500 victory in 1998). Earnhardt's seven championships are tied for most all-time with Richard Petty.