And he's famous for playing rough. He stole a race on the final lap last autumn by bumping leader Terry Labonte at something like 190 miles an hour. Labonte lost control, and Earnhardt passed him to win. Sitting in his mobile home parked at the Daytona Speedway before the Pepsi 400 one rainy Saturday in July, Earnhardt seemed mild-mannered. And despite his insistence that he's just a car nut with an eighth-grade education, he speaks authoritatively about a range of investments and businesses.
Corporate logos are in plain view on everything from the cars to the uniforms on the pit crews.
Drivers must negotiate with the team owners and the corporate sponsors whose cash makes the cars go. Agents are still rare. Most drivers make all their own deals, and tough guys of the old school like Earnhardt would sooner die than give a percentage of their take to some guy in a suit. As he started winning, his salary and share of the purses went up. Product endorsements began to come his way.