It wasn t all an act, either, but friends say he would often commit quiet acts of kindness while insisting that his generosity and sensitivity not be mentioned to anyone. When he would visit a sick child in the hospital, for example, he would ask that it be kept a secret between the two of them. Yes, Earnhardt was a complex man. But, then again, he was from the South a region that tends to produce people as contradictory and difficult to figure out as a path through a patch of honeysuckle. TV commentator Ned Jarrett, a former driver, called Earnhardt the toughest competitor there ever was.
Every driver wants to win, but nobody more so than Earnhardt.
During the final laps of his last race, however, he was content to hold onto third place while doing his best to block any car that tried to overtake his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second, and the winner, Michael Waltrip, who was driving a car owned by Dale Sr. Meanwhile, the image of sports stars in contemporary America depends a lot on how they live their lives outside the arena. In Earnhardt s case, fans stuck with him because he did not let wealth or fame change him. The country boy never moved uptown, in other words. He took nice vacations, but he remained as plain and straightforward as a Merle Haggard song.