It is still hard to believe. Eight years today Dale Earnhardt, Sr. passed away on the last lap of the Daytona 500. February 18, 2001 is arguably the darkest day in NASCAR history. That is the day that NASCAR lost its biggest hero.
I remember that day very well. I watched the Daytona 500 and was very glad to see Michael Waltrip get his first win. I saw that Dale Earnhardt was involved in the last lap wreck, but really didn’t think much of it. Just figured everything was okay like it normally is.
Later that evening, I turned on the computer to check the final results of the race. I went to MSN’s website and saw a headline under the Sports section that read, “NASCAR legend dies”. Well, when I first saw that I thought that it was odd that a legend died the same day as the 500. I figured it was someone from the 1950’s, 1960’s, or 1970’s era that had passed away quietly in their home.
I clicked the link, read the article about 20 times, and still could not believe what I was reading. I called 5 people right off the bat. Maybe I was not reading it right - my eyes were playing tricks on me. I turned on the TV. The news of his death was on every channel. I just could not fathom what had happened.
I will admit, I was never a Dale Earnhardt fan, by any means. I was perhaps one of his biggest detractors as a matter of fact. I grew up pulling for Richard Petty, then later Bill Elliott. So you know by me saying Bill Elliott, I was a rabid Dale-hater from the late-1980’s to the mid-1990’s. Elliott and Earnhardt had quite the rivalry during that time. It was the classic Ford versus Chevrolet battle, it was The Intimidator versus Awesome Bill From Dawsonville. For me, it was what made the sport fun during that time. And boy, do I miss it.
The funny thing about Dale Earnhardt is I never really noticed him until 1986. By then he had already won a Winston Cup Championship - and was on his way to another one that year - but I had never heard of him. I guess being a kid and pulling for The King and Elliott, I had never really noticed Earnhardt before.
7-time Winston Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt.
1986 was my first year visiting then-Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway. The race went along that day with Earnhardt and Waltrip pretty much duking it out the whole race. Then when the race got into the waning laps, Earnhardt spun Waltrip, tearing both cars all to pieces. I remember looking over at my uncle sitting beside me and asking, “Who the heck IS that??” My uncle just simply replied, “Some young little punk that needs an ass whoopin”. He was a huge Waltrip fan at the time.
Two years later at the fall Richmond race, we noticed Earnhardt again. Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway had been reconfigured from a half-mile track to a modern three-quarter mile facility, and renamed Richmond International Raceway. It featured a new layout with new grandstands, new pit road, and concrete walls.
Dale Earnhardt during his early years in the Winston Cup Series.
About half-way through the race, a caution come out. Back then drivers still raced off pit road. We were sitting in turn one, just where the cars come off pit road – very good seats for seeing the pit action. Two cars came rolling off pit road side by side. Then out of nowhere comes this black No. 3 car. He comes flying out and splits the two cars coming out of pit road, grabbing the lead.
No. Taking the lead.
Everyone in the stands stood up. My uncle jumped up and asked, “Who was that?”, “How did he do that?”, “That guy is crazy!” That was the day my uncle became a Dale Earnhardt fan, and the day I began to boo him.
One thing is for certain, NASCAR just isn’t the same without him. I spent almost two decades booing Earnhardt, and have spent the last eight years missing the hell out of him. I never knew how much I enjoyed watching that man drive a race car until he was no longer there.
He made the sport intriguing and exciting - you never knew what he was going to do next. Earnhardt definitely kept you glued to the seat in the final laps if he was in contention. I would have never admitted it while he was alive, but he was NASCAR.
From his tangles with Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte and others, to finally winning the Daytona 500 in 1998. He personified stock car racing.
The time he flipped several times during the 1997 Daytona 500 demolishing his car, then while sitting in the ambulance, he realized the car still had all the wheels. He got back in the car and drove it back to the garage. He eventually re-entered the race, finishing 31st. The famous pass in the grass versus Bill Elliott.
I could type all day about the great memories of Dale Earnhardt, Sr.
Dale Earnhardt sitting in his wrecked Chevrolet after flipping several times during the 1997 Daytona 500.
I dearly miss the sight of that black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet circling the track. I will always hold my memories of Dale Earnhardt very close. Today I am proud to call Dale Earnhardt one of my heroes.
Long Live The Intimidator!
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