HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DALE EARNHARDT

Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

I have to make a confession. I didn't immediately realize that today was Dale Earnhardt's birthday. He was born April 29, 1951 and would have been 75 in 2026.

As you can see at left, I've written a bit about Dale. In 1999, I wrote a coffeetable book about RACING FAMILIES (for Beckett), and the two Dale Earnhardts were on the cover. After Dale died on Feb. 18, 2001, I hooked up with Cumberland House Publishing in Nashville and wrote I Remember Dale Earnhardt. (CHP was looking for another writer when they lucked into me.)

In 2007, I got a call from Cumberland House executive Ron Pitkin asking if I'd like to update IRDE. I said I would, and I spent the next two months interviewing new people, rewriting and editing what I'd written in 2001. And I added about 20,000 words.

Pitkin was looking for a new name for the book, and I gave it to him almost by accident. I sent the editor a story I'd written calling Earnhardt the Angel in Black. Ron loved it, and one of my suggestions was Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr. Obviously, that's the title we used.

That book, by the way, is still for sale.

My fourth racing book, Then Junior Said to Jeff..., was originally written by Jim McLaurin and the late David Poole. I wrote nearly 20,000 words for it as the co-writer, and, as I had for Angel in Black, I edited what had already been written.

Happy birthday, Dale.

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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!

A handshake with Earnhardt

EARNHARDT AND BOBBY LABONTE

This is another memory in honor of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who died on Feb. 18, 2001.

It was the late 1990s, and we were at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Earnhardt was being swamped by race fans, and he was looking around for help.

He saw me and smiled. He knew how to get away.

As I walked up, Earnhardt stuck out his hand and we shook hands. It must have lasted a half-minute, and we had a short conversation. I told him that he owed me one for the favor; he smiled and agreed.

The fans seemed to enjoy the incident because Earnhardt was talking to someone he knew (at least a little bit, in my case).

Then he turned and walked away, leaving me and his fans in the lurch. I saw him a few times after that, but we never spoke one-on-one again.

If you're wondering, that was only the second time we ever shook hands. The first time was on the media tour in 1992.

Related: Angel in Black

------------------------------

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!

Angel in Black

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

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 is dying, and his wish is 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.

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.

"I Remember Dale Earnhardt" was well-done (I say modestly), but "Angel in Black" was much better.

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!