Only Yesterday: When Dale Earnhardt Was the New Kid in Victory Lane

It’s a tale as old as time. A brash young upstart enters a sporting arena and ruffles the feathers of the established veterans. He refuses to conform to the way things have always been and instead appears focused on blazing a new path with little regard for whose feelings get razed in the process.

Carson Hocevar, the most recent first-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, certainly fits the stereotype. He is young, only five months old when Kyle Busch made his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut. Considering that Busch can be counted among the many people whose feathers have been ruffled by Hocevar, the 23-year-old Hocevar checks that box as well. Not to mention, after witnessing his post-race victory celebration, I’d say he’s absolutely blazing a new path.

But there have been many others in a similar situation and recently, most familiar among them is seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt absolutely shook up the established order of NASCAR racing when he barged onto the scene.

NASCAR racing was a very different experience in 1979 than it is now. While drivers now tend to be a few years removed from high school graduation, most Cup drivers’ cap and gown had been in the closet for decades before they raced competitively. 

Then along came a 27-year-old Earnhardt, who put a whooping on the field at Bristol Motor Speedway in just his seventh start of the season. Buddy Baker started the race on the pole, eight spots ahead of Earnhardt, and led the first 138 laps of the Southeastern 500.

The day wasn’t without its challenges for Dale, as he hit a wet spot on pit road and overshot his pit box. Then, while chasing down Darrell Waltrip for the lead, he glanced off the wall. Neither was enough to derail Earnhardt from his charge to the front.

Only Waltrip and Bobby Allison finished on the same lap with Earnhardt. In fact, Richard Petty, the King himself, wound up two laps down in fourth having never even led the race.

Petty was not impressed by the rookie Earnhardt or his Bristol victory. He was even less amused after a run-in with Dale at Martinsville Speedway in which the Rod Osterlund-owned No. 2 damaged a multitude of cars in one swoop.

Years later, Petty recalled, “The first time I heard tell of Dale Earnhardt, was in Martinsville… (Earnhardt) was behind us.. They throw the green flag, we go down in the first corner. I’m turning, here come a car across the grass and lands on my hood. Who is it? Dale Earnhardt. So, I went over and said, ‘Don’t let that happen again’. I gave him a warning finger.”

Earnhardt was undeniably fast, winning four poles in 1979 and starting 15th or better in every race but one. But peppered among the strong runs and 11 top-five finishes were outings like the one Petty was referring to. The future champion had four DNFs, all due to crash damage. These included a wreck at Pocono Raceway that resulted in one broken shoulder, one dislocated shoulder and a concussion.

That crash sidelined Earnhardt for four races, making his Rookie of the Year title and seventh-place points finish all the more impressive. There was no waiver or other artificial leveling of the playing field back then. Earnhardt minimized the detrimental effects of missing more than 10% of the season with his performance in the events that he did participate in.

But while there were critics, Earnhardt also had his supporters and many of them. For one, his crew chief at the time, journeyman Jake Elder, said, “I really believe this is only a start. I believe you will see the boy (Earnhardt) win some more short track races and I’m even looking at a couple of superspeedway wins. He’s young and he’s good … He’s got at least 12 good years ahead.”

It turned out that Earnhardt had much more than 12 good years in his NASCAR career as he won his first championship the next year. Fourteen years later, the man who came to be known as The Intimidator claimed his final title.

Hocevar has taken the comparison to Earnhardt as a positive.

“I mean, everybody’s open to their own interpretation,” Hocevar said of his personality. “I feel like you’re always just going to be compared to somebody, whether they’re good or bad. You know, if I were really, really slow, there’s probably comparisons of guys that were really, really slow back in the day, too.

“I just go out and race, and I enjoy it. I take it as a massive compliment, you know, from Richard Petty, Kyle Petty, Dale [Earnhardt] Jr., all of them making comparisons. I’m appreciative of that. I would like to just have half the success any of those guys did.”

Perhaps decades from now, this column will feature a look back on Hocevar’s first win much like this retrospective on Earnhardt’s debut in Cup victory lane. Odds are Hocevar has plenty more history to make between now and then.