Happy 74th birthday to Dale Earnhardt. Or Happy 73rd, as he’d prefer. Here’s the story

Happy Birthday to ol’ Ironhead.

You may have known him as The Intimidator. Or perhaps the Man in Black. The true legends had more than one nickname, you know.

Dale Earnhardt would’ve been 74 today.

Or is it 73?

For a while there, Earnhardt even managed to put a lap on Father Time.

But the ultimate race official — his mom, Martha — delivered a stop-and-go penalty that put her famous son back on the right track.

It’s a fun story and worthy of a recap on April 29, which many NASCAR fans like to call Dale Earnhardt Day.

When Dale Earnhardt tried to turn back time

It was 1991 in Daytona for Speedweeks (back when it was weeks, plural). Back before everything was digital, we had physical media guides — made of paper, of all things! I was looking through the brand new 1991 edition but also glancing back at a couple from previous years to gather some facts and figures on Earnhardt.

It was all about Earnhardt in those days at Daytona, where he was winning damn near everything he entered except, famously, the Great American Race.

Not sure how it caught my eye, but it did. In previous years’ media guides, Earnhardt’s birthday was listed as April 29, 1951. That meant during this particular season — 1991 — the Intimidator would turn 40.

Except in the new media guide his birth year had switched to 1952. Turns out, Earnhardt had gone to the PR guy at NASCAR with what he labeled a “correction” to previous bio info.

I became intrigued, and along the way, I was given the phone number to Martha Earnhardt’s home in Kannapolis, N.C. — surely Dale’s mom could clear this up.

It’s a fun story and worthy of a recap on April 29, which many NASCAR fans like to call Dale Earnhardt Day.