The entire Earnhardt (Sr) / Gordon rivalry was manufactured by Dale for marketing purposes. There was
a length article in the St. Pete Times on Sunday talking about how Dale had helped jumpstart Jeff's career to begin with...
I mean, literally, this was like "Days of Thunder" -- Californian/Yankee who has everything (or so it seems) versus the blue-collar establishment of NASCAR and their icon-of-the-time (Earnhardt).