Driver: Kerry Earnhardt
Car: No. 2 Kannapolis Intimidators Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Track: Charlotte Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway (2001)
Bio: Kerry Earnhardt was quite a driver in his own right, as befits his lineage as an Earnhardt. In 2000 and 2001, the eldest Earnhardt son won four ARCA Racing Series events in a car owned by Dale Earnhardt Inc. and sponsored by the local minor-league baseball team, the Kannapolis Intimidators. On a side note, Dale Sr. had purchased a part of the Chicago White Sox Single A team after the 2000 season, and the team rebranded itself from the Piedmont Boll Weevils to the Intimidators in Dale Sr.’s honor.
“This car won at Pocono with Kerry driving, and it’s probably one of my favorites because of the Intimidator logo,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a video about the machine. “My father got involved with a local baseball team and they changed their name to the Kannapolis Intimidators to honor him. It was fun to see Kerry win some races in the ARCA Series to sort of propel his career. He ran some Xfinity Series and Truck races too. He got to have a pretty good time driving cars for a living.”
Kerry had solid success in the ARCA ranks with the car, winning two of the three races it was entered in. He won at Michigan in June with it, and followed that with a triumph at Charlotte in October. His first race in the car was at Charlotte in May, and he finished 20th after mechanical gremlins plagued his effort.
In his 11-race ARCA career, Kerry won four times. The first came in 2000 at Pocono, two came in the Intimidators car and the last at Atlanta in another DEI car. He finished with seven top-five and eight top-10 finishes in those 11 starts.
The car was eventually replaced when the body styles changed, and the shell of it resides in a place of honor in the Racecar Graveyard.