No team in NASCAR has achieved the same level of success as Hendrick Motorsports. In this DJD Classic, which originally aired 9/23/19, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his former boss, Rick Hendrick, sit down for an in-depth discussion about Rick's origins in motorsports, how he built up NASCAR's winningest team, and his plans for sustaining excellence in the future. Hear Rick recount the famous rental car ride between Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine that was orchestrated by Mr. Bill France himself. Plus, what did Kenny Schrader do with Dale Jr. that made Dale Sr. mad enough to not speak with Schrader for a full year? The stories are plenty, and the laughs are hearty - nobody in NASCAR can replicate the subdued humor of Mr. H.

Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough surely won’t be exchanging Christmas cards in 1980. The three-time champion has had quite enough of the overzealous sophomore from Kannapolis, but as the season comes to a close, he continues to stand in the way of crown number four for Cale and the Junior Johnson team. Dale and the Osterlund team are going to have a difficult day in Atlanta, and his late race effort to gain his lap back will bring his rivalry with Cale to its absolute breaking point. The two exchange blows in the media, and the points margin stands at 29 as they head to Ontario, California for the season finale.

Dale Earnhardt has been leading the NASCAR Cup season points for most of 1980, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing. In fact, stock car legends Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, and Cale Yarborough have all been within striking distance at one point or another, but attrition has kept the field even. Engine failures, crashes, injuries, and team disharmony have plagued everyone in the Cup garage, and it appears the 1980 crown will come down to whoever can manage the chaos best. And thanks to Jake Elder’s untimely departure, Dale has to depend on a young, inexperienced, newly promoted Doug Richert to help keep things on track.

Imagine being a sophomore, leading the NASCAR points with Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough breathing down your neck. That was Dale Earnhardt’s reality in May of 1980. He and the Osterlund Team are fresh off back-to-back wins in hot pursuit of more trophies, but the competition is heating up. The young outfit gets a lesson in stock car excellence from Buddy Baker and Waddell Wilson, as Dale has a rematch with the Gray Ghost at Talladega. After a quiet race at Nashville and an engine failure at Dover, things begin boiling over in the 2-car’s garage.

It’s February of 1980, and Dale Earnhardt is hungry to return to victory lane. The Osterlund-2 car hasn't brought home a win since David Pearson filled in for Dale at the Southern 500 the previous year. Plus, with a new contract and sponsorship comes expectations, so needless to say, he’s eager to hold up his end of the bargain. Thankfully, he won’t have to wait long, as he overcomes adversity at Atlanta for his first speedway win and follows it up with a repeat at Bristol. He quickly goes from a potential flash-in-the-pan, one-time winner to etching his name into the NASCAR history books.

With the scene set, it’s off to the races in 1980. The NASCAR Cup Series heads out to Riverside, California, to begin the season, and sophomore Dale Earnhardt is hoping to improve his road course performance. He will, in fact, finish runner-up to Darrell Waltrip, who, after a narrow loss in the 1979 points race, is regarded as a championship favorite for this year. Dale caps his successful West Coast trip off with a new season sponsor and a contract extension with Rod Osterlund, and he’s understandably feeling at the top of his game. He rolls that confidence into Daytona Beach, where he shows his first glimpses of supernatural ability on the superspeedway high banks. He makes a last lap pass on the outside of Darrell Waltrip to pick up his first victory at the track, the Busch Clash. But when all the marbles are on the line in the Daytona 500, he has to go toe to toe with Buddy Baker and the fastest stock car in the country: Waddell Wilson’s Gray Ghost.

Another year, another scrapbook. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back on his quest to learn the origins of his father’s legendary NASCAR career, and in this season of Becoming Earnhardt, he is unpacking the 1980 season. With the help of some family scrapbooks and his personal collection of racing artifacts, Dale Jr. is seeking to gain a deeper understanding of who Dale Earnhardt was before his seven championships and numerous wins.

The dust has settled on the greatest NASCAR Cup season in history, and it’s time to recap all that we’ve learned about 1979. Dale Earnhardt Jr. invites some of the guests from BECOMING EARNHARDT for a roundtable discussion to recount all that we’ve learned and conclude some of our favorite character’s stories. Dale’s aunts Cathy Watkins and Kaye Snipes as well as Osterlund Racing crew member Doug Richert return as first-hand character witnesses who helped bring the story of 1979 to life. The chat once again sets the dial back to the beginning of 1979 and views Dale Earnhardt through the eyes of his family, as he’s getting ready to embark on the biggest opportunity in his young racing career. It also dissects complicated characters like Jake Elder and the team dynamic at Osterlund Racing. They dive into the significance of the NASCAR Cup Rookie of the Year in 1979 and just how close things got in the race between Dale and Joe Millikan. Finally, some new details are revealed about the severity of Dale’s injury at Pocono and his lengthy hospital stay and time out of the driver’s seat

After 27 grueling weeks, it comes down to the final four races. Somehow, after all the roster changes, crashes, fights and calamity, there are two tight points races to be decided. As the NASCAR Cup contingent prepares for the last stretch, the season points championship and the Rookie of the Year battles have never been closer. Dale Earnhardt surely had the rookie crown locked up after his stunning victory at Bristol in April, but the trusty DeWitt team and their unproven chauffeur Joe Millikan have kept him in sight. After Dale’s disastrous crash and time on the sideline, Millikan took full advantage and strung together a series of top-10 finishes to take over the top spot in the standings.

As we roll into the CRC Chemicals 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway, our hero Dale Earnhardt has settled back into his role as driver of the Osterlund Racing number 2. However, six weeks out of the action has compromised his stamina, and his first race back the prior week in Richmond saw him seeking out assistance from fellow racer Lennie Pond. 500 miles at the challenging, high-banked one-mile oval in Delaware is demanding enough for a healthy driver, but for someone who is still mending two broken collarbones it’s unthinkable. Then again, that’s the Dale Earnhardt we’ve all come to know so well: never backing down from any challenge

It was a rookie season of the ages, until it wasn’t. A cut tire and Pocono’s unforgiving steel boiler-plate walls left Dale Earnhardt with two broken collarbones and an open-ended timeframe for recovery. The NASCAR Cup circuit would then roll on as he began to mend in an East Stroudsburg, PA, hospital. The progress he made in the stock car ranks and his grip on the 1979 Rookie of the Year award would be tested as his closest competitors in the freshman race would continue onward. Even worse, his own ride and future could be in jeopardy, as the Osterlund Racing team makes a call to one of the greatest drivers in history to fill-in during the interim.

It’s June of 1979 and 28-year-old Dale Earnhardt is feeling as confident as ever. With a notch in the win column and top five finishes in the last three races, the rookie seems to have found his place amongst the stock car racing elite. As episode five of Becoming Earnhardt opens, the NASCAR Cup circuit travels to the Lone Star State to take on the daunting Texas World Speedway. Dale would once again race his way into the spotlight, nipping at the heels of eventual race winner Darrell Waltrip before a mechanical failure sent him into the wall and made him settle for a 12th-place finish. But the impressive showing had Ol’ DW once again admitting in victory lane, “when all the seasoned veterans retire, it’ll be Dale Earnhardt I’ll have to contend with.

Basking in the glory of his first NASCAR Cup victory, rookie Dale Earnhardt finds himself in the conversation of the top talents in the garage area. Not only has he put the heat on the rest of the rookie class with his triumph, but he’s put stock car racing’s veterans on notice: the kid from Kannapolis is the real deal. But following up his win would be no easy task, as the next event on the Cup schedule would take him to the track deemed Too Tough To Tame, and the Lady in Black had many hard lessons to teach an overconfident freshman.

In the aftermath of the 1979 Daytona 500, NASCAR found itself on an unimaginable trajectory to becoming the biggest form of motorsport in the country. Some 16-million viewers tuned in to watch the flag-to-flag coverage on CBS, and having witnessed the fight, the King and the rest of the action, they were hungry for more. The result was speedway box offices being flooded with ticket requests, and the largest crowds that had ever assembled to take in stock car racing. Rockingham, Richmond, Atlanta, North Wilkesboro and Bristol were next on the schedule to take a turn at entertaining the masses. And luckily, NASCAR had plenty of talent in the garage ready to seize the spotlight.

It’s January of 1979, and 28-year-old Dale Earnhardt is ready to embark on the greatest challenge he’s faced in his young career to date: a full season in the NASCAR Cup Series. As the teams and haulers head west to California to kick things off, we zero in on the blue-and-yellow Osterlund Racing No. 2, which Dale will chauffeur for the first time on a road course. After a promising afternoon, his overzealousness gets the best of him, and the Rookie of the Year spotlight is shifted to another promising newcomer.

In 1979, Dale Earnhardt scored the biggest opportunity of his budding career to run in the NASCAR Cup Series full-time for upcoming car owner Rod Osterlund. While there are remnants of that season’s events preserved through television and radio broadcasts, as well as other memorabilia, Dale’s older sister Kaye did what any supportive sibling in the 70s would do: she started scrapbooking. Within these scrapbook pages lie a comprehensive picture of what the 1979 NASCAR season was like from the perspective of the rookie Kannapolis driver. Decades later, it was these very scrapbooks that inspired Dale Earnhardt Jr. to create a new podcast series documenting the monumental season and his father’s rapid, meteoric rise to stock car stardom.

Welcome to the last Bless Your 'Hardt of 2025! This week, Dale and Amy cover all the chaos, laughs, and life updates that come with the holidays. From gift prep to family shenanigans, nothing is off limits. They talk about why Christmas feels like the Super Bowl for moms, with gift chaos, wrapping stations, and the planning it takes to make sure every niece, nephew, and cousin gets the right thing, while dads just play video games. Plus, a wild story from the road about a truck flip as a teen, narrowly avoiding disaster, and the lessons about distracted driving, universe-sized signs, and staying present that came from it. On top of that, they share smaller, hilarious moments, like Dale accidentally eating dog food, holiday car decorations that make everyone question humanity, and the kids building chaotic gift “trains” while Dale and Amy try to keep up. It’s a holiday episode full of laughs, life lessons, and real family moments, all wrapped up in the chaos and joy of the season.

On today’s episode, we’re reliving the best moments from the inaugural season of Bless Your ‘Hardt. Throughout the year, Amy and Dale retold old stories, relived embarrassing moments, and brought up bar-room-type debates that had us rolling on the floor laughing. From discussing if time travel is real to stretching the boundaries of doctor-patient confidentiality and everything in between, this episode has it all. Leave us a comment with your favorite Amy and Dale moment from this year! Enjoy!

Do It For Dale, Hauler Fights, Moonshine: Best of DJD

Amy and Dale’s favorite segment on Bless Your ‘Hardt has always been #AskAmy because they get to hear from you, the listeners! You never know where the questions or conversations will lead. We had a lot of hilarious moments during #AskAmy, so we compiled some of the best questions, funniest responses, and silliest debates to create The Best of Ask Amy. From naming the Dale and Amy rom-com movie to proposal and parenting advice, and everything in between, #AskAmy had it all this year!