Wrangler Jeans driver Dale Earnhardt wore a worried look on his face in the Winston Cup garage at Talladega in the days leading up to the August 2, 1981 Talladega 500. His Pontiac car
#2 racing operation had been sold by owner Rod Osterlund to Jim Stacy and Dale was not happy driving for Stacy and team manager Boobie Harrington. Before the Talladega weekend was over, sponsor Wrangler forged an agreement for driver Richard Childress to step out of his
#3 car and field Pontiacs for Earnhardt for the final 11 races of 1981, beginning at the August Michigan race.
Dale was wearing old frayed looking straw hats when Wrangler came aboard in 1980. They were really nothing like the really nice hats Richard was wearing. Cale also was wearing straw hats similar to Dale's. I don't know what the source was, but Wrangler was happy for him to wear anything remotely western looking. Bob Janelle had a blue and yellow hat band with "Wrangler" on it made up for Dale's hats. Dale kind of shed the hats by 1982 and mostly was wearing our blue & yellow baseball style caps.
That's quite a special hat you have, Dennis.