The heartbreaking moment that changed everything.
A couple years ago on The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Aunt Cathy, the sister of Dale Earnhardt, was a guest. And she went in-depth on some of their family history, sharing a few stories and memories she had from Dale Sr.’s early days in racing.
They talked about when Dale Sr.’s dad, Ralph, passed away, and how it affected their family, ultimately causing Dale to have to step up as the leader. He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to pursue racing, and had been married and remarried and had two kids by the time he was 21 years old.
His first son, Kerry Dale, was born in December of 1969, and Dale was married to Kerry’s mom, Latane, at the time. They were still teenagers, and obviously incredibly young, and Dale was entirely focused on making his racing career work at the time, though Cathy told an interesting story about what Dale Sr. was like as a dad back then. Jr. and his sister, Kelley, talk often about how their father was less-than-perfect and often neglected spending time with them as his career always took priority.
The new Earnhardt documentary on Prime Video takes a deeper look at that, but Cathy says Dale was an incredible father… before Latane left him. One day, he came home to their trailer to find she had taken everything, and he was never, ever the the same from that point on. It changed something in him, and Cathy said Latane didn’t like that Dale wanted to race, because she wanted a more simple home life.
When Dale got home, she’d left him a fork, knife and cup to eat, and a sheet, blanket and one pillow to sleep. That was it. Everything else, including his son and wife, was gone, and eventually, Dale signed over the rights to his son altogether:
“I do wanna say, Dale was a great dad until Latane left him. When he came home from work that day, and she had taken Kerry Dale and everything he owned out of that trailer, and left him with a fork and a knife and a plate and a cup, and one sheet, and one blanket, and one pillow, Dale changed. Dale was never the same. Never the same. Well, and again, all I know is what Dale would tell us. He would bring Kerry Dale as a little one to the house, to the shop, and help daddy on race cars, Momma would play with Kerry Dale and keep up with him.
Well when that went down, she didn’t have access to Kerry Dale. Her parents always worked in the mill, and she said she didn’t like the way Dale smelled, like the grease on his hands or, you know, his clothes would smell like cars and she didn’t like that. She didn’t like that he did that. She wanted him to work a job and come home and not come to daddy’s, you know. And that was all we were ever really told about that break up. She left him, and a couple Christmases after that, mother went to take Kerry Dale‘s Christmas present to him, and they wouldn’t let her see him.
They said you can leave the gift, but you know, were divorced and she was marrying Jackie Key. And then they told us that Kerry had all these problems and they wanted to change his name, and so Dale was kind of in a corner. Put in a corner, and at the time, it was kinda like the rest of his life. He sacrificed everything for his racing. He went down at Concord and did a tire test for Goodyear, I think, but he did a tire test and made $900 for doing a tire test. He gave her that $900 to settle money he owe her in child support and signed over rights to Kerry Dale.”
It’s sad in so many ways, and Kerry Dale didn’t even know Dale Sr. was his father until he was a young teenager. That much time had gone by since he’d seen him or spent time with him.
Not long after he divorced Latane, Dale remarried Kelley and Dale Jr.’s mom Brenda, though they were married for several years and ultimately got divorced, as well. Dale Jr. and Kelley really didn’t know their father until they moved in with him at the ages of 8 and 10, when their mom’s house in Kannapolis burned down and she moved to Virginia for work. She had little money as it was, so Dale Sr. wanted the kids to come live with him and his new wife Teresa, something Teresa wasn’t expecting and it definitely changed their family dynamic.
That’s a story for a whole other post, and you can read more about it here…
Dale Jr. is still shocked that his dad became what he did in many ways, because when he was in his early 20’s, with three kids, an ex-wife and a wife that would soon become an ex, he was “running 100 miles an hour at the speed of light going nowhere”:
“So he meets Mom, they they get married, has Kelley, has me. Now I said he was a lousy dad, but he was… absent. When he was there, he was great. He was. And I have some very faint memories of him being there, and they were good times. But I do know through stories from different people Tony Sr., Robert G Jr., dad raised hell. Drank, out all night running around, goofing off, racing, working. Like, when the hell this guy sleep?
And that’s what I’m saying as far as like, I don’t know how he got it. I don’t know how he made it happen. I don’t know how he got that opportunity that that propelled him into what he became… because he lost his dad. He just became this… he’s running 100 miles an hour at the speed of light going nowhere. You know I mean, just bouncing off walls, figuratively. Racing his a** off. Wheeling and dealing.”
Kelley added that her dad’s insane success was due in large part to the fact that he was so likable. Aunt Cathy added that he could sell himself like no other, and that’s a talent that proved to benefit him greatly, and is a huge reason that we all love him so much, too, I think.
The guy had a larger than life personality, undeniable raw talent, and an unwavering belief in himself that he was going to make it no matter what. Aunt Cathy said he always knew he had what it took… all he needed was a chance to prove it:
“Because in Dale’s mind, if he could just show his talent, if he could just get the chance to get out there and show what he could do, then he’d make it. That was his mentality. I just gotta show what I can do.”
Once he got the opportunity to start proving himself at a higher levels, he was off to the races, quite literally, and ultimately became a seven-time Cup Series champion and the all-time best to ever do it.
But I find it so fascinating to learn about what he was like in the early years, because he really went through a lot and sacrificed everything, including his family in many moments, to become the exceptional race car driver and cultural icon that he remains to this day.
You can watch that part of the interview with Aunt Cathy below, she is precious and it’s a fascinating conversation:
