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The Dale Jr. Download

Becoming Earnhardt Vol. 6 - The Silver Fox And The Young Gun

The Dale Jr. Download

Dirty Mo Media & SiriusXM

Sports

58.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It was a rookie season of the ages, until it wasn’t. A cut tire and Pocono’s unforgiving steel boiler-plate walls left Dale Earnhardt with two broken collarbones and an open-ended timeframe for recovery. The NASCAR Cup circuit would then roll on as he began to mend in an East Stroudsburg, PA, hospital. The progress he made in the stock car ranks and his grip on the 1979 Rookie of the Year award would be tested as his closest competitors in the freshman race would continue onward. Even worse, his own ride and future could be in jeopardy, as the Osterlund Racing team makes a call to one of the greatest drivers in history to fill-in during the interim.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The following is a production of Dirtymoe Media.

0:06.0

Now there's the kid to watch.

0:09.0

This kid Earnhardt in the Austerlund number two, the car out of California, the driver from North Carolina,

0:14.0

second generation driver, his father, one of the most famous short track drivers in American racing history.

0:20.0

The well-known Ralph Earnhardt, his kid looks pretty good.

0:25.1

It's been a rookie season for the ages.

0:27.5

Through the first 18 races of 1979, Dad has seven top five finishes,

0:31.8

including that monumental win at Bristol.

0:34.3

And despite a couple of crashes, some mechanical failures,

0:37.1

he's fifth in the season

0:38.1

points destined to make a big enough splash in his freshman year to assure that he'd have a place

0:43.2

in stock car racing for years to come. That is until July 30th. Here's my dad's sister Kay,

0:50.2

who was driving home from work at the time. I was listening on the radio going home, and there was a commercial,

0:57.2

and when they came back from the commercial, there had been a wreck.

1:01.6

Cumble and turn, Joe, it's luck out, Dale Earnhardt, right below us,

1:05.6

that slammed the wall with a blown tire.

1:08.1

He is all the way around the wall, all the way around the second turn. Here's my aunt Kathy, who was also home and got a phone call. You know, they said, you know, Dells had a wreck. He's heard. Well, how bad? I don't know. He was walking. He, you know, he got out of the car. I said, well, then he's okay if he got out of the car.

1:29.3

The outcome of the spectacular crash at Pocono has left dad with broken collar bones

1:34.0

and other injuries.

1:35.4

And after chasing stock car glory week after week, he's suddenly relegated to the sidelines

1:40.8

for the foreseeable future.

1:43.1

I'm Dellenhart Jr.

...

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