Motorsports is a game where you play with 700 HP and more. One wrong move, and you and your competitors’ lives are at stake. So it is very rare to find moments where a person absolutely dominates to the point of making motorsports boring. There are just so many factors involved. The machine, the man, the team behind him, the rules, and even the weather. Yet, it happens once in a generation that a person arrives who shreds every record, becoming the anomaly–the X-factor.

NASCAR has seen its fair share of anomalies, too. The King, Richard Petty; the Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt; and the modern ruler of the NASCAR Cup Series, Jimmie Johnson. But once upon a time, there was a driver who became so successful that he ended up getting banned. Yes, you read that right. Imagine being so good at what you do that you are prohibited from entering the race.

This happened to Ralph Lee Earnhardt, the father of Dale Earnhardt Sr. The patriarch of the Earnhardt racing family set a precedent for his generation by racing in stock car divisions. He is among the most successful drivers in NASCAR with more than 350 victories in NASCAR-sanctioned races. Ralph Earnhardt was more than a racer. He was a very successful team owner and mentor to other drivers like Bobby Isaac. So what did this legend do in order to earn himself a ban from a racetrack?

Ralph Earnhardt won so much that he started affecting the audience

Ralph Earnhardt was basically the driver who set the benchmark in the 50s and 60s. There were none who could even compare to him. The Earnhardt patriarch was a ruthless winning machine. But there was one track, which he loved and dominated more than any others. It was the Hickory Speedway.

To put things into perspective, Ralph Earnhardt had already won the Hickory national championship five times by 1959. But he did something in 1959 that would completely change his stature in the sport. He literally won 22 out of 24 races at the track. So one day, he was basically told that he couldn’t participate anymore. Ralph Earnhardt dominated so aggressively that the other drivers simply couldn’t catch up. And what about the audience?

The audience became so sure that Earnhardt would win every week. So they basically stopped visiting the races and the track. That way, the track could literally earn no revenue, owing to the empty seats and lack of audience.

In his own words, “That was a period of my greatest success. They won’t let me run there anymore. They said I monopolized once, and I’d monopolize it again.”

That’s how good he was in his prime. The secret? It was not insane speed or the best equipment that no one else could procure. It was simply intelligent racing. Ralph Earnhardt knew how to take care of his machines. He was a very dedicated guy. So he only pushed hard when he really had to. Multiple races of Ralph Earnhardt’s career were won by last-lap passes.

Combine that with his prowess as an engineer, and Earnhardt was just unstoppable. He was the perfect combination of it all. Earnhardt himself accepts that, “I believe that my reputation as a builder of  racing engines, equals my reputation as a racing driver.”

Even his competitors were hardly hostile towards him. Ned Jarrett recalls that his personality would not let anyone stay angry with him for a long time. “Ralph and I became good friends. But there were times when he and I would have some run-ins on the race track. But you couldn’t stay mad at him.

“He was the type of guy who would come up to you, even if he hit you, knocked you out of the track and say, ‘Ned. I didn’t mean to hit you that hard going into that turn…’ And you just couldn’t help. And I am certainly glad that I got to race against him.”

Ralph Earnhardt was also meticulous in his preparation for a race. When asked about the teams that tried to experiment during the race, he was very critical, labeling them as ‘tinkerers.’ Earnhardt would never try to change his car setup when he brought it to the track. His belief was that once a car is on track, you can’t make any good changes that will help you perform better during the race.

So in a way, his dominance and his ability to win races were not just natural genius. It was a precisely calculated combination of everything that a racer should have. He had it all. He was the perfect example of a racing prodigy. He knew how to go fast; he knew when to drop back or increase his pace; he knew his cars, and he had the charm to sway the opposition and never create enemies on track. It’s no wonder Ralph Earnhardt ended up winning so much at Hickory.

It was not that the competition was bad. It was just the fact that they couldn’t come to the track as well prepared and ready to race as Ralph Earnhardt. If racing is war, then Ralph Earnhardt is definitely Sun Tzu of racing.

But all that preparation still couldn’t beat bad luck…

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When Ralph Earnhardt lost, even though he seemingly won?

It all started with the NASCAR Grand National debut. Ralph Earnhardt was racing at Hickory. Driving as a replacement for Fireball Roberts, Earnhardt was incorrectly shown the white flag to indicate that he was leading. Everything went well until they announced that he was not the winner of the race.

Speedy Thompson was declared the winner. It ended up making the crowd furious. They were ready to come to blows with the authorities before Ralph Earnhardt stepped in. He ended up declaring that he was satisfied with the results and calmed down the angry mob of fans. But was this the only time he was ‘robbed’ of a win? Not at all.

It happened again in 1961 during the Atlanta 500 while driving for Cotton Owens. Ralph Earnhardt was sure that he had won the race, but he lost the victory owing to a scoring error. “I thought I won, Cotton said I won, even the scorers said I won. But I didn’t get the money. According to the final tabulation, Bob Burdick finished first. I guess you just can’t beat an educated pencil.”

His bad luck with victories and scoring errors did not leave him alone. Once again, at the Rebel 300, he faced the same issue. He basically led six laps during the race, but somehow ended up three laps behind the leaders. It made him confused and dazed, “In the Rebel 300, I was leading and I made a fast pit stop. Well, nobody passed me and I finished eighth. We still haven’t figured that one out.”

Earnhardt was racing during a time when even wins were not guaranteed. You think you are the race leader with a comfortable gap to the racers behind, and suddenly you come to know that you are three laps behind them. Such was the time Earnhardt raced in.

To become a dominant force of victory that demolished the competition, to win more than 300 NASCAR-sanctioned races, and to become so good at driving that you are banned from the race track itself is a feat that takes more than talent.

No wonder the Earnhardts’ DNA is full of racing prowess. After all, their first-generation patriarch used to redefine the meaning of racing every day.