When Dale Earnhardt's Sponsor Helped Bill Elliott & AJ Foyt

Here's one I thought our young Georgia member, Cody Dinsmore might appreciate.

I was just looking through some old business cards and came across one given to me by Steve Shafer, head of Coors Special Events Marketing in 1983 when they first considered coming into NASCAR and hadn't yet announced that they'd be sponsoring a young fellow named Bill Elliott in 1984.

In 1983, I was Manager of Wrangler Jeans NASCAR Special Events and other sponsors often picked my brain for promotional ideas. We also furnished lots of jeans, shirts and jackets to other teams, besides our Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd ones. Back in 1983, you didn't have all the specialized manufacturers that supply NASCAR teams today and fire suits on pit crews were unheard of.

When I flipped over the business card given me by Coors, there on the backside were the items Coors wanted to source for their new NASCAR sponsorship of Harry Melling and Bill Elliott in 1984. Y'all probably never realized that Dale Earnhardt helped Bill Elliott did ya?

I guess the most famous apparel I furnished to other teams were the iconic red & white checkered shirts used by AJ Foyt & Jim Gilmore, both in NASCAR and at Indianapolis. Below the Coors business card, I've possted an AJ shirt... you can see the Wrangler tag in the neck and over the pocket.

NASCAR was a smaller world then.

Love it!

Did WRANGLER made an 2 piece fire-resistant race uniforms for Dale Earnhardt Sr., Ricky Rudd, and Richard Petty?
Did Ricky Rudd do any magazine photo shots wearing WRANGLER shirts,pants, and boots?
I remember seeing Dale Earnhardt Sr. with son, Dale Jr. and daughter, Kelly in the WRANGLER advertisements in old race magazines.
Did wife, Teresa or son, Kerry do any WRANGLER advertisements?

Thank you very much for any information given.
Dennis Garrett
Richmond, Va. 23225

Dennis, I'm not aware of Wrangler ever having made any fire-resistant race uniforms. I believe Dale's uniforms were from Bell when I worked for Wrangler.

I don't know of any Teresa or Kerry Wrangler ads. Ricky Rudd did several in the "Live it to the Limit" campaign for the 1984 season. I believe one was on a jet ski on Lake Norman. Ricky alternated with Wrangler ads featuring Dale in 1984 - the only season Wrangler sponsored two drivers.

The ad below was shot with both Dale and Ricky in New York in December 1983 on Thursday morning before the Winston Cup Awards banquet on Friday night at the Waldorf-Astoria. Dale was mad because Ricky was going to be in the ad with him and showed up at LaGuardia airport with his mustache shaved off. Some later ads for the1984 campaign had an airbrushed mustache added to Dale. Also in the ad below, there are three clothespins on the back of Ricky's shirt making it fit tighter for the photo, since the shirt was too big for him!

Great stuff thanks for sharing

When AJ switched from the iconic red & white checkerboard shirts to the "Foyt Orange" pit crew shirts, Wrangler continued to furnish them to AJ at no charge and in return Wrangler patches were displayed on all Foyt crew shirts:

I just realized Ricky is holding Dale's helmet in this pic (see the Magnum on the side of it?)

I reckon that really made Ricky's day. Didn't remember that. Thanks, Jay.

I thought that the stylized "3" that Richard Childress wanted to carry over from the Ricky Rudd/Piedmont Airlines graphic looked awful on the blue & yellow Wrangler car. It only lasted in 1984.