One Tough Customer: how Wrangler found its driver

Wrangler was already running an ad campaign called "One Tough Customer" when it went racing, according to Dave Fulton, who ran the company's racing program. It needed someone who looked like the slogan. In Dale Earnhardt, it found him.

The fit ran deeper than attitude. Wrangler was a working person's brand. In 1974 it became the first and only western-wear brand endorsed by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Earnhardt's fans were the same people who wore Wranglers to work.

A sponsor that followed its driver

Wrangler's name was on Earnhardt's quarter panel when he clinched the 1980 championship for car owner Rod Osterlund, and it became his full-time sponsor in 1981. Then the team fell apart around him. Osterlund sold to J.D. Stacy in the middle of 1981, and Earnhardt quit after the August race at Talladega.

He finished that season in Richard Childress's car, with Childress giving up his own driving career to put Earnhardt in it. Childress put everything on the line to do it.

Wrangler stepped in. At the end of 1981 it gave Childress an extra $50,000 to keep his team afloat. For 1982 and 1983, at Childress's own suggestion, Earnhardt took the Wrangler sponsorship to Bud Moore's No. 15 Ford Thunderbird and won three races in two years. Then, in 1984, Wrangler pushed to reunite Earnhardt and Childress in the No. 3 Chevrolet.

That reunion is the one history remembers. Earnhardt won the 1986 and 1987 Cup championships in the blue-and-yellow Wrangler No. 3. The 1986 title was also Childress's first as a car owner.

1. 1980Earnhardt clinches the title for Rod Osterlund with Wrangler on the quarter panel.
2. 1981Wrangler goes full-time. The team is sold mid-season and Earnhardt finishes the year with Childress.
3. 1981Wrangler gives Childress an extra $50,000 to keep the team alive.
4. 1982–83Earnhardt takes Wrangler to Bud Moore's No. 15 Ford. Three wins.
5. 1984Wrangler helps reunite Earnhardt and Childress in the No. 3 Chevrolet.
6. 1986Championship, Childress's first as an owner.
7. 1987Championship. Wrangler's last season on the car.
8. 1988GM Goodwrench takes over, and the No. 3 turns black.

Wrangler put the driver in its advertising

Wrangler didn't only buy a car. It made the car part of its marketing. "One tough customer" ran on the back of the car, and Wrangler cross-promoted Earnhardt with Willie Nelson's concert tour, including a "Winners wear Wranglers" ad featuring Nelson, Earnhardt and Childress together.

Then it went black

Wrangler's run ended after 1987. No source we trust documents why, so we won't guess. For 1988, GM Goodwrench became the primary sponsor. Childress has said GM wanted the car blue and white, and he argued that black would stand out better against the track. He won that argument, and the black No. 3 made Earnhardt "the Man in Black."

The Goodwrench car ran until Earnhardt's death in February 2001, winning four of his seven championships. The image fit so completely that fans still picture the black car first, even though Wrangler was the sponsor that stood by him when his career could have gone either way.

The Wrangler story had a coda. In July 2010, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in a one-off Wrangler No. 3, a tribute to the car his father drove.