Earnhardt's Auto Centers

Tex Earnhardt, founder and CEO of Earnhardt Auto Centers, was raised on a ranch in the Rio Grande Valley of Southern Texas. In 1951 when he was twenty years old, he and his family moved to Chandler where his father, Hal Earnhardt, Senior, started a small gas station downtown.

The service station provided a small income for his family by selling gas and auto parts. Tex wanted to expand his business to sell automobiles, but the factories in Detroit refused to ship the vehicles to him without expensive transportation costs. Tex went to work and immediately found a solution. He and a friend decided to drive to Detroit, buy a car from the Ford factory, drive both vehicles back to Chandler, and sell the new car. As soon as he sold his first car, he drove right back to Detroit and purchased the second. He repeated the whole process for months.

Eventually his hard work translated into success when Ford factory officials saw how dedicated and strong his work ethic was. They awarded him his own franchise at the age of 21. To this date, Tex holds the record for the youngest franchise owner in the entire nation.