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1986 - The Second Championship
DW's best seasons- his title years in 1981, 1982 and 1985- came during Dale's most fallow period. And in Dale's seven title seasons, DW was not typically the man he had to beat. Except in 1986.
For the previous two years, Dale and car owner Richard Childress tried to put together a championship-worthy combination. They found it on the third try. Coupling the staying power he had in 1984 with the horsepower of 1985, the RCR Enterprises Chevrolet was a force all season. Dale seized control of the points lead (from DW) with a runner-up finish at Talladega the first weekend in May and never looked back.
His
run to the top started slightly earlier, when he won back-to-back starts
at Darlington and North Wilkesboro. A third win at Charlotte in the Coca
Cola 600 followed in June. He nailed
He led all but three events, but placed no worse than seventh in any of the races he didn't lead. And in the four races that he failed to finish, Dale led no fewer than 34 laps in any of them. At the end of the 1986 season he was second time the NASCAR Winston Cup champion, and with Richard Childress it was the first of six championships. The most common view of the No.3 Chevrolet for Winston Cup competitors was its back bumper as Dale pulled away...!
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When
Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt emerged on the Winston Cup scene in
the 1970s, race fans assumed the brash Tennessean and the soft-spoken
North Carolinian would become rivals for years to come. And while DW and
the Intimidator dueled often for the lead on every track on the circuit
over the next two decades, rarely did the rivalry manifest over the
course of a full season.
the Charlotte double in October,
then sealed the
crown with a vitcory at Atlanta in the season's penultimate race. Though
he remained the closest pursuer almost season long, DW simply couldn't
keep up with Dale's week-in, week-out brilliance. Dale was a factor in
every race. 