Ralph Lee Earnhardt was born on February 23, 1928 in Kannapolis, Cabarrus County in North Carolina, the youngest of four children, the son of John Henderson and Effie Mae Earnhardt. The family was part of the farming community, and after leaving school Ralph worked in one of the cotton mills for several years. The wages and conditions were poor and one of the ways out of the situation was to run.
During his teenage years, he began building cars in the family garage with the intention of racing one on local dirt tracks, eventually beginning in 1949. In 1953, at the age of twenty-five, Ralph turned professional and began his career par excellence, achieving great success. impression on the world of racing very quickly.
His first race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series took place on November 11, 1956 when he finished second to Speedy Thompson in the Grand National (now the Sprint Cup Series) at Hickory Speedway, North Carolina. Also in 1956 he won his first NASCAR Sportsman’s title, the year in which he had 32 victories.
Throughout his career, he held track championships at seven different venues. 1961 saw Ralph earn his highest finish in the Grand National points standings, in 17th place, and also saw him replace Cotton Owens as a relief driver in the Daytona 500, covering over 300 miles and finishing in fifth place. His awards include: Ralph was inducted into the National Motoring Press Association Hall of Fame in 1989, the same weekend Dale Sr. won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame International Motorsports Championship at Talladega, Alabama, in 1997 and, along with his son Dale Sr., was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers.” During NASCAR’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1998, in 2004 Ralph was a member of the Daytona Beach Rotary Club of Oceanside Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame and a member of the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame. in 2007.
His son, Dale Sr. later said of the award he shared with his father, “This has been a very special time for me and our family. I wish I could have been here to see all of this.” During an interview with Buck Knight of the Free Lance Star, Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Friday, August 25, 1967, Ralph was asked if he would like to drive on the Grand National circuit and replied, “It would be a lot of fun to drive on the super Speedways, but grand national league is a bit rich for my blood ie pocket its quite different from sportsman driving because on short tracks but not so big that a man can’t make the change the main difference i found It’s that in super speeds a man has to stay very fresh and very awake. There’s no time to relax, to rest.”
In the old days, Ralph would race with the old vets like Joe Weatherly, Buck Baker and Curtis Turner and many others. “The sport is very different than it was in those days, when I was just starting out, a mate found out about races coming up near the vine, or from a phone call from a friend or from the promoter. The bags were very small and now and then a promoter made light of it before the payoff No one will ever know what NASCAR has meant to racing, turned a chance affair into a business and brought safety to a game where there was little or nothing .”
When asked if he planned to retire from NASCAR racing, he replied, “I feel good and I think I’m driving better than ever, I should be, a man learns something every race he drives and I drive three times a day.” week. Ralph was interested in the up and coming young guns and it was he who got Bobbie Isaacs started in the racing business. Ralph provided the guidance that launched his son’s racing career growing up in southern North Carolina and Dale Sr. from a very early age wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Sadly, Ralph Earnhardt died of a heart attack in his home on September 26, 1973 at the age of 45. He was found by his wife, Martha, on the kitchen floor, not as people. they like to believe, working on a car in the garage and found by his son Dale Sr. he Left behind his wife Martha, sons Dale as Dale Sr. and Danny and two daughters Martha Kay and Kathy Lee . by Dale Jr., and Kerry Earnhardt.
