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.

This vehicle theoretically launched Dale's career in the stock car series. This was an un-sponsored car owned by Rod Osterlund, which Dale drove in his 6th NASCAR event (actually his 6th ride and 9th start) at Atlanta (Race 29).  Rumors from DEI itself suggest that Dale only drove this in the Busch series, however, Dale Cline in "Remembering Dale Earnhardt" suggests otherwise. This car was driven only once in the last race of the season at Atlanta. Dale qualified 10th, lost a lap twice, and climbed back up to finish 4th out of 6 lead lap cars, against the likes of Darryl Waltrip and Cale Yarborough.

Through 1976 and 1977 Dale continued Sportsman racing while begging the occasional Winston Cup ride. Dale never won any track championships, he moved around too much. He just raced wherever he felt good about going.

Earnhardt began his Winston Cup career in 1975, making his first start at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina in the longest race on the Cup circuit, the World 600. Earnhardt drove an Ed Negre Dodge Charger(#8) and finished 22nd in the race, one place ahead of his future car owner, Richard Childress.