Yesterday we held something called an "All-Family Reunion", where everybody that we are related to- on every side of the family- were invited to get together and have a picnic in the park that we rented. It was a great time- there's very little that can top spending time with family, and we had 56 people show up, ranging in age from 90 to 1 years old. It was truly great.
That prompted me to finally write a post I've been drafting in my head for several years now, which is a look at the largest family in trading cards.
That is the Earnhardt family in NASCAR, with 16 people getting cards of their own, and three more appearing on cards co-featured with Dale. (The Petty family comes in second, with 8 members getting cards. For NBA, the leader is the Barry family, with 6 people getting cards. I don't know about hockey yet- but I doubt it's more than 16 people!)
It all started with Ralph Earnhardt, who started racing in NASCAR in the very early stages of the sport's history...but his actual beginning in auto racing is clouded by time and poor record keeping. He never really chased the big time- though he does have 51 Grand National starts to his credit (now the Cup series) he preferred to stay close to home and race in the Sportsman division, that would eventually become the Busch series- now the Xfinity series- but, in 1982, NASCAR threw away the records that had been kept- which were not very well kept- and started from scratch. He won several championships including the 1956 Sportsman title. He was one of the first to race and only race- in the early days it was not uncommon for the drivers to have to hold down several jobs to try and find a way to make a living. Ralph Earnhardt raced so much, up to 5 nights per week, that he was able to support his family with just his earnings.
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| 2007 Press Pass Legends #10 |
Ralph's son Dale would go on to be one of the greatest drivers in auto racing history. 7 Winston Cup championships, (tied for first), 76 wins (8th all-time, 6th at the time of the tragedy), and capable of doing things with his car that most people cannot- other top-level drivers included. After winning the 1979 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, he backed it up with his first championship in 1980, something not done by anyone else in the history of the sport, winning it all in only their second year. Eventually, his black #3 GM Goodwrench car would become one of the true icons of the sport. (He drove that same basic paint scheme from 1988-2001). He was still winning races when tragedy struck on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt won the first two championships I ever saw, 1993 and 1994, and, while those were the final two he won, it was generally expected that with the right racing luck, he would be capable of winning more. That was not to be, and the sport has not been quite the same since then. I know I'm kind of light on the biography of Dale here, but I figure everybody knows about his accomplishments already.
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| 1999 Press Pass #8 |
Ralph had other sons besides Dale, who went into NASCAR, but did not get cards of their own, as they chose the crew side. In fact, as far as I know, the only time Danny and Randy ever appear on a card is this painting from the Artist Series from when they were all kids.
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| Dale Earnhardt : The Artist Series #2 |
Danny is still alive, I would love to see Panini get him to sign for them, or Dale's Mom Martha who is still with us but currently has no cards. They have done well getting people to sign who never have before! Unfortunately, Randy passed away in 2013.
Dale had 4 children, and three of them went into the racing field.
The eldest, Kerry, had a brief Cup career, and when he drove Dave Marcis' s car at Michigan in 2000, it became the first time in history that a father and two sons took to the track at the same time. Kerry retired after 2009, and now owns a company that builds houses.
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| 2018 Donruss #114 |
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Dale's second wife was Brenda Gee, and she and Dale had two children. (We'll get back to the Gee family in a little bit). Kelley Earnhardt (Now Earnhardt-Miller) was said to possibly be the best driver of Dale's children, but she did not pursue it as a career. She has, however, stayed very active in racing, currently co-owning JR Motorsports with Dale Jr. and Tony Eury, a very successful team that has won multiple championships in the Busch/Xfinity series, most recently in 2014. Of all the immediate Earnhardt family, Kelley was the hardest to track down a card for. It took me more than 20 years, as she has had only a couple until recent years, when she has singed for Panini. Two of Kelley's husbands have cards as well, which I'll cover below.
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| 1994 Wheels High Gear Day 1 #181 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr would become my all-time favorite driver in NASCAR history. I began following his career in 1994, and was thrilled when he finally got to the Cup series full-time in 2000. I actually began watching the Busch series regularly in 1998, specifically because he was racing in it full time. Previously, I only watched it sometimes, but the two years he was running it full time, that's when I began watching it full time. He won the Championship both of those years as well! He moved up to Cup in 2000, and would win 26 races over the next 15 years, ranking 29th all time. (He and his father combine for the second most wins by a family, after the three generations of Pettys with 262, 200 of which from Richard alone) For the first half of his career, he drove for DEI, and the second half for Hendrick Motorsports. Although he never did win a Cup title, I never gave up hoping, and my support never wavered-and never will. He retired at the conclusion of 2017, and is now broadcasting racing on NBC every weekend. He just celebrated the birth of his first child with his wife Amy, perhaps someday they will get cards as well? Only time will tell.
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| 2003 Press Pass Signings- probably my favorite pack pull ever, from a single pack retail purchase! |
Dale's fourth child, Taylor, never got a card of her own, though she does appear on several with Dale. It was a regular occurrence to see her in victory lane with her parents throughout the 1990s. Although she has not gone into auto racing, she has gone into a sport with horsepower- equestrian. It's not outside the realm of possibility that she could get a card in that sport...if they ever get any cards.
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| Dale Earnhardt: The Artist Series #16 |
The next generation has begun racing, as well. Both of Kerry's sons have taken up racing, and one of Kelley's children has as well. For now, only Jeffrey has gotten cards. Kerry is competing in Cup as much as he can. but lack of funds is limiting him, he's made 7 starts this year, out of a possible 20. We don't really know what he's capable of, as the majority of his career has been in cars that are not competitive no matter who is driving them; he finished 11th at Daytona two weeks ago, his best career finish by far.
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| 2017 Donruss #61 |
So that's the direct line from Ralph to today...but the family is much more well represented than that.
As noted, Kelley and Dale Jr's mother is Brenda Gee. (no cards exist of her) Her father Robert was in the racing field for many years, among other things being one of the original employees of Hendrick Motorsports, in fact building the engine that Dale Earnhardt drove to win the first ever Busch race in 1982. In the early years of Maxx, they actually gave cards to the crew members who were voted as All-Pro, something I really miss in the world of NASCAR cards, as now we mostly get drivers only; there's far more to the sport than that. Robert Gee got his cards primarily from those All-Pro subsets, Finish Line also included a tribute card to him after he passed away in 1995.
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| 1990 Maxx Glossy #106 |
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While one of Robert's daughters married Dale and had Kelley and Dale Jr, Robert's other daughter Sandra (who I have talked to briefly on Facebook, in one of the NASCAR history groups) had at one point been married to Tony Eury.
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| 1993 Maxx #189 |
Tony Eury Sr. was the long-time crew chief for the DEI teams, and his son Tony Eury Jr. also became a crew chief, both of them chiefing for Dale Jr. in Cup at times. Tony Jr. most recently helmed the crew of the Premium Motorsports #7 Chevrolet for Danica Patrick earlier in 2018. Tony Jr. is first cousins with Dale Jr. and Kelley.
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| 2008 Press Pass Speedway #55 |
Dale's third and final wife was Teresa , nee Houston. She and Dale got married in 1982, and from 1984-01, Dale and Teresa co-owned Dale Earnhardt Inc., which competed in the Busch Series only from 1984-94, then added the Truck series in 1995, and finally moved up to Cup in 1998. After the tragedy of Dale's death, Teresa owned and operated DEI herself until 2009, when it was merged with (bought by) Chip Ganassi racing. DEI won two Truck titles and 4 Busch titles. Teresa got 9 cards of her own in her role as DEI owner/ Dale's wife, as NASCAR has always been about family, including in the cards in the 1990s. I have only one of them.
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| 1991 Traks #186 |
Teresa's uncle is Tommy Houston, legend of the Busch series, who has many cards from his years competing in the series.
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| 1993 Maxx Premier Series #50 |
Three of Tommy's sons have cards of their own, but I only have two of them in my collection. (These are Teresa's first cousins)
Andy and Marty went into driving. Marty has one card of his own, but I not only do not have it, I've never even seen it, so I can't share it here. (1992 Bull Ring #184)
Andy found some success in the Truck series, (3 wins) but his tenure in Cup was short lived, as the team ran out of money midway through his Rookie of the Year attempt season, 2001. He is Austin Dillon's spotter in the Cup series today. Austin is, of course, grandson of Richard Childress...who owned Dale's car from 1981 & 1984-01. As I said, NASCAR is all about family.
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| 2001 Press Pass Premium Gold #48 |
Oldest son Scott went into the crew aspect, and was eventually crew chief for his father in the Busch series. I do not know is he is still involved in the sport, as info on crew chiefs and crew members is nearly impossible to find. The most recent info I can find is that he was crew chief for the #32 Cup car in the last 5 races of 2000- the same team that tried to expand to a second car in 2001 with Andy Houston driving.
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| 1992 Maxx #184 |
Although Kerry and Dale Jr.'s wives, and Taylor's husband, do not have cards, two of Kelley's husbands do. Her first husband does not have cards, but her second was Jimmy Elledge, who was a long time crew chief in Cup, from 1998-2014. I do not know what he is doing now, but one of his two children with Kelley has taken up racing, perhaps to get a card of her own one day? Again, time will tell.
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| 2000 Press Pass Trackside #52 |
Kelley has since married L.W. Miller, a former racer. He does have one card, but I do not have it. It's from the 1994 ARCA set, long one of my most wanted sets. I've been looking for years but I've been unable to find it. I wasn't even able to find a picture of it online!
Could you imagine, if all of these folks were still with us, and still getting along, (some of the relationships are, um...strained) the bench racing and the memories that would abound at a family reunion? It would pretty much be the entire history of the sport in one room!
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| 2009 Legends #58 |
