Earnhardt was born on April 29, 1951, in the suburb of Kannapolis, North Carolina, the third child of Martha Coleman and Ralph Earnhardt, who was one of the best short-track drivers in North Carolina at the time and won his only NASCAR Sportsman Championship in 1956 at Greenville Pickens Speedway. At age twelve, Earnhardt secretly drove his father's car in one of his races and came near victory against one of Ralph's closest competitors. Despite his father's opposition to a professional racing career, Earnhardt dropped out of school to pursue the sport. In 1972, he raced his father directly at Metrolina Speedway. After Ralph died suddenly of a heart attack at home in 1973 at age 45, it took many years before Earnhardt felt he had proven himself to his father's memory.
Earnhardt had four siblings: brothers Danny and Randy, and sisters Cathy and Kaye. He was married three times. His first marriage to Latane Brown in 1968 produced a son, Kerry. His second marriage to Brenda Gee — daughter of NASCAR car builder Robert Gee — produced a daughter, Kelley, and a son, Dale Earnhardt Jr.. He married his third wife, Teresa Houston, in 1982; their daughter, Taylor Nicole Earnhardt, was born in 1988. Earnhardt owned farmland in Mooresville, North Carolina, where he raised cattle, and was an avid outdoorsman and hunter.
Earnhardt made his Winston Cup points debut in 1975 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the World 600, driving the No. 8 Ed Negre Dodge Charger to a 22nd-place finish — one spot ahead of his future car owner Richard Childress. He had made an earlier informal Grand National appearance in 1974 in an invitational exhibition at Metrolina Speedway, where he spun out battling for third with eight laps remaining. He competed in eight more races through 1978 before securing a full-time seat.
Earnhardt joined Rod Osterlund Racing for 1979, a rookie class that also included future champion Terry Labonte and multi-race winners Harry Gant and Geoff Bodine. He won his first race at Bristol Motor Speedway, captured four poles, scored eleven top-fives and seventeen top-tens, and won the Rookie of the Year award despite missing four races with a broken collarbone.
In 1980, with twenty-year-old Doug Richert as crew chief, Earnhardt opened the season winning the Busch Clash and won the championship with victories at Atlanta, Bristol, Nashville, Martinsville, and Charlotte. He is the only driver in NASCAR Cup history to win the Rookie of the Year award and the series championship in consecutive seasons.
The 1981 season proved turbulent. Sixteen races in, Rod Osterlund suddenly sold his team to Jim Stacy, an entrepreneur from Kentucky. After just four races with Stacy, Earnhardt departed following a dispute and finished the year driving Pontiacs for Richard Childress Racing, placing seventh in the final standings. He left at year's end, citing a lack of chemistry.
At Childress's suggestion, Earnhardt joined Bud Moore Engineering for 1982 and 1983, driving the No. 15 Wrangler Jeans-sponsored Ford Thunderbird — the only full-time Ford ride of his career. In 1982 he struggled, winning at Darlington but failing to finish eighteen of thirty races and ending twelfth in points. He also suffered a broken kneecap at Pocono Raceway after contact with Tim Richmond. In 1983 he rebounded, winning his first Twin 125 Daytona 500 qualifying race and adding wins at Nashville and Talladega, finishing eighth in the standings.
Earnhardt returned to Richard Childress Racing in 1984, replacing Ricky Rudd in the No. 3 car. Over 1984 and 1985, he won six times — at Talladega, Atlanta, Richmond, Bristol (twice), and Martinsville — finishing fourth and eighth in the standings respectively.
The 1986 season delivered his second Winston Cup championship and the first owner's title for Richard Childress Racing. He won five races, recording sixteen top-fives and 23 top-tens. In 1987, he won eleven races and the championship by 489 points over Bill Elliott, setting a NASCAR modern-era record of four consecutive wins and winning five of the first seven races. In 1988, GM Goodwrench replaced Wrangler Jeans as sponsor, and Earnhardt changed the car's color from blue and yellow to the signature black that defined the No. 3 for the rest of his life.
During the 1987 Winston All-Star Race, Earnhardt was briefly forced into the infield grass at high speed but kept control and returned to the track without surrendering his lead. The maneuver — now called the "Pass in the Grass," even though Earnhardt did not pass anyone while off the track — became an emblem of his "Intimidator" persona. Afterward, an angry fan sent Bill France Jr. a letter threatening to kill Earnhardt at Pocono, Watkins Glen, or Dover, prompting the FBI to provide security at all three tracks.
In 1989, Earnhardt won five races but lost the championship to Rusty Wallace by twelve points after spinning out late at North Wilkesboro. Wallace finished fifteenth when he needed only to finish eighteenth to win.
The 1990 season saw Earnhardt lose the Daytona 500 on the final lap when he ran over a piece of metal — later revealed to be a bell housing — that cut a tire while he held a forty-second lead. Derrike Cope inherited the win. Earnhardt recovered to win nine races and his fourth Winston Cup title, beating Mark Martin by 26 points. He also became the first multiple winner of The Winston all-star race.
He won his fifth title in 1991 with four wins, beating Ricky Rudd by 195 points. In 1992 he endured his worst Richard Childress Racing season, managing only one victory — the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte — and finishing twelfth in points. Crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine left at year's end and was replaced by Andy Petree.
In 1993, Earnhardt won six races and his sixth title, including the first prime-time Coca-Cola 600 and The Winston at Charlotte, plus the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, beating Rusty Wallace by 80 points. In 1994, he secured his seventh and final championship, tying Richard Petty's all-time record. After Ernie Irvan was sidelined by a near-fatal crash at Michigan — where the two had been level at the top of the points standings — Earnhardt won the title by over 400 points over Mark Martin, sealing it with a race victory at Rockingham.
In 1995, Earnhardt won five races including his first road-course victory at Sears Point and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a win he called the biggest of his career. He lost the championship to Jeff Gordon by 34 points.
In July 1996 at Talladega Superspeedway, a multi-car incident left Earnhardt's No. 3 Chevrolet hitting the tri-oval wall nearly head-on at almost 200 mph before flipping and sliding across the track in front of race traffic. Despite breaking his collarbone, sternum, and shoulder blade, he refused a stretcher and, two weeks later at Watkins Glen, qualified on pole and led most of the race before finishing sixth. This crash, along with a similar accident that led to the death of Russell Phillips at Charlotte, led NASCAR to mandate the "Earnhardt Bar," a metal brace in the center of the windshield that reinforces the roof.
In 1997 — only the second winless year of his career — Earnhardt blacked out early in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington, hit the wall, suffered double vision, and required relief driver Mike Dillon for the remainder of the race. Medical evaluations never determined the cause. He still finished fifth in the standings.
On February 15, 1998, Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 in his twentieth attempt after nineteen failures. He won his Twin 125-mile qualifier for the ninth straight year, led the race decisively from lap 138, and was aided by a push from teammate Mike Skinner to maintain the lead to the caution-checkered flag. Every crew member from every team lined pit road to shake his hand as he drove to victory lane. He then drove the No. 3 into the infield grass, spinning it twice and leaving tire tracks in the shape of a 3. That win was his only victory of 1998; he finished eighth in the standings.
The week before the race, nine-year-old Wessa Miller — whose wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation was to give Earnhardt a penny for luck — had her penny glued to his car's dashboard. Earnhardt won.
In 1999, Earnhardt swept both Talladega races for the year, recording a tenth career win there, and won controversially at Bristol by bumping leader Terry Labonte on the final lap. He finished seventh in the standings.
In 2000, following neck surgery to correct a lingering injury from the 1996 Talladega crash, Earnhardt enjoyed what was widely regarded as a resurgence. He won at Atlanta by 0.010 seconds over Bobby Labonte and gained seventeen positions in the final four laps to win at Talladega Superspeedway, claiming the No Bull million-dollar bonus and his record tenth win at the track. He finished second in the standings and was the only driver besides Labonte to complete the season without a DNF.
During the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001, Earnhardt was killed in a three-car crash on the final lap. He had been blocking for teammates Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who were running first and second. After light contact with Sterling Marlin, Earnhardt's car collided with Ken Schrader and struck the outside wall head-on. Waltrip won the race and Earnhardt Jr. finished second. Earnhardt was pronounced dead at Halifax Medical Center at 5:16 pm EST. An autopsy on February 19 concluded that the cause of death was a fatal basilar skull fracture. He was 49 years old. Public funeral services were held on February 22 at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina; he was interred at his Mooresville estate after a private service on February 21.
In October 2001, NASCAR mandated the HANS device across all three national series — a head-and-neck restraint Earnhardt had refused to wear, finding it restrictive and uncomfortable. Team owner Richard Childress re-numbered the No. 3 to No. 29 and named second-year Busch Series driver Kevin Harvick as Earnhardt's replacement.
The No. 3 did not return to the Cup Series until 2014, when Childress's grandson Austin Dillon drove it. Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo chose the number 3 as his permanent racing number in part as a tribute to Earnhardt, with the number stylized in the same way as on Earnhardt's car.
In 2002, the Dale Earnhardt Plaza was erected in Kannapolis, featuring a 9-foot, 900-pound bronze statue and a granite monument. The Dale Earnhardt Foundation was established that same year. Earnhardt was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, and was an inaugural inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010. ESPN named him first on its list of NASCAR's 20 Greatest Drivers in 2007, ahead of Richard Petty.
As a team owner, Earnhardt had founded Dale Earnhardt, Inc., which won five races in the 2001 season despite his death, beginning with Steve Park's win at Rockingham one week after the Daytona 500.
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