Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

RACE FANS PROBABLY wonder where the book name "Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr." came from.

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I wrote "I Remember Dale Earnhardt" in early 2001 for Cumberland House Publishing and decided to promote the book with a story I could send to small newspapers (which are often looking for free copy). So I used a portion of the book and told a story about Earnhardt's love for (and kindnesses toward) children.

In one story from the book, a little boy was dying, and his wish was to meet Earnhardt. Dale had just undergone surgery and couldn't travel, so an ambulance and medical team were assembled to bring the boy to the Kannapolis area.

Earnhardt was wearing a collar, and he was shy about people seeing it. But he allowed someone to take a photo of him with the boy, and he told the boy that no one else would see him with that collar. He spent time with the boy, who didn't have much time left, and he made the next few days more bearable for the boy's parents.

• Then Junior Said to Jeff... (book of great NASCAR stories)

There are other stories like that in the book. Why Angel in Black? In that promotion story, I said that kids didn't see Earnhardt as the baddest man on the planet. To them, he was the angel in black.

Then we were updating the book in 2007. While working on the update, I sent a copy of that article to my editor at Cumberland House, John Mitchell, and he showed it to the publisher, Ron Pitkin. Ron fell in love with the term Angel in Black, and he asked me what we could call the book with Angel in Black as the main head. One of my suggestions was "Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr." And that's what was used.

More blog entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

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• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn•

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The book is back

I AM A CO-AUTHOR OF
 "THEN JUNIOR SAID TO JEFF..."

OVER THE WEEKEND, I RECEIVED copies of the book "Then Junior Said to Jeff...", to be published in October by Triumph books. It looks great.

Jim McLaurin and the late David Poole wrote it in 2006, and I updated it this year.

This is how it came about: Triumph Books wanted to update the book, but Poole had died a few years ago and Jim felt he was too long out of racing. So Jim suggested I do it.

The book isn't just about Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. Poole and McLaurin wrote about everyone from Junior Johnson to Dale Earnhardt to Darrell Waltrip and more. I've added stories about Tim Flock and Jocko Flocko, Cale Yarborough, Sterling Marlin, Tony Stewart and more.

Most of the stories are funny. Buddy Baker, a born storyteller, is a good source of funny stories. One of the other guys wrote a great story about Buddy wrecking in a race, being taken away by ambulance and then going into a panic when his stretcher (not locked down) left the ambulance with race cars coming along. Some of the stories — like the one about Mark Martin and former car owner Bill Davis — are interesting.

Poole and McLaurin did a wonderful job, and I believe I made the book better.

The new cover is cool — they added the cars of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. at the top — and I'm excited. I can't wait for the green flag to fall on the book.

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FIND MY BOOKS ONLINE

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   BLUESKY: PROFILE

More entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

EDITOR@WORK blog entries 

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

The book of NASCAR stories

In 2025, it's been more than 12 years since I added my 19,000 words to "Then Junior Said to Jeff...", a book of NASCAR stories originally co-written by the late David Poole and Jim McLaurin.

There are stories about old-timers like Junior Johnson, Tim Flock and Curtis Turner, plus current Cup stars like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer.

I also went through edited the chapters that David and Jim wrote. The book was pretty good before, but I can modestly say that it's better now. They'd have been proud of it.

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FIND MY BOOKS ONLINE

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

 

More entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

EDITOR@WORK blog entries 

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!