This car (owner Rod Osterlund) brought Dale his first career Winston Cup win, the Southeastern 500 at the Bristol International Raceway on April 1, 1979, in his 16th career start. In his first full-time NASCAR cup season, Earnhardt earned Rookie of the year honours, beating out the likes of Millikan and Terry Labonte, and finished 7th in points, 1081 points behind champion Richard Petty. He claimed four poles in twenty-seven starts and gathered eleven top 5's and seventeen top 10's. The determined Earnhardt's first win was only his third race working with Jake Elder. The young intimidator led in sixteen races, including the Daytona 500 where he finished 8th.The yellow and blue paint scheme is similar to the 80 Monte Carlo with the difference in the Wrangler sponsorship not showing and the Crane Cams logo is on the angle frame.

This year, David Pearson took over in the #2 car after Dale was injured at Pocono. He drove it for something like 4 or 5 races. He did so well in it (finished second once and won a race also) that Dale was beginning to get worried that he may not have a ride.