BRISTOL, Tenn. — Dale Earnhardt won his first NASCAR race 30 years ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, and his son wishes he had a video of the monumental race.
Earnhardt drove his Chevrolet to victory in the Southeastern 500 at Bristol, a fitting place for his first trip to Victory Lane.
“That makes sense, I guess, him winning his first race here, because this track, if there’s a race track that fits his personality, this would be the one,” Earnhardt Jr. said Friday before qualifying at Bristol.
“He loved racing here and loved winning in front of the people here in Tennessee. This is such an exciting race track, and (I) just think he fed off of that for all those years.”
Earnhardt went on to win nine races at Bristol, but his son has yet to see the 1979 victory in its entirety.
“That’d be awesome to get a videotape of that race,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I’ve never seen it, just some clips of him coming off the corner.”
His son was present for several other wins, and his favorite was the 1985 victory when Earnhardt lost his power steering 50 laps into the race. The seven-time Cup champion rallied for the win in an unbelievable feat of strength.
“The Earnhardt moment for me here was when he ran like 450 laps and won the race with no power steering,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I ran like 20 laps at California with no power steering. I mean, it was difficult, and it was hard to drive the car and get it to where you wanted to go. The whole feel of the car changed. I was having a hard time running any kind of competitive lap on new tires.
“For him to have been able to do that here at a place like this for basically the entire race and win, that was pretty cool.”
The elder Earnhardt was killed in an accident on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
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