This year’s Daytona 500 marks the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhartd’s first and only Daytona 500 victory.
What a race it was.
The 1998 Daytona 500 had all of the same drama as the previous Daytona 500’s that Dale had run before. Even car owner Richard Childress remained cautious while doing interviews throughout the race, after all they had been there and had done that before and still came up short (i.e. 1990 Daytona 500 where Dale cut a tire in turn 4 giving the victory to Derrik Cope).
With each lap that went by the tension by everyone, fans, announcers, and the RCR crew began to mount. The tension was so strong that it radiated from the TV into living rooms and bars throughout NASCARland, not even the frequent commercials could provide the ‘arm chair driver’ with a break in the tension.
Dale had been running near the front all day, dominating in fact - no new news there - when, with two laps remaining and in the lead, Dale came out of turn 2 with a snarling pack of hungry cars behind him looking to set him up for the old ‘dip and dive, blow on by’ freight train move which would leave him in the dust when it happened, a spin.
Instead of one lap remaining it now came down to a race for the caution flag. Dale used the slower lapped car in front of him as a ‘pick’ to keep the wolves, Mayfield and B. Labonte, behind him at bay.
The ‘pick’ worked and “20 years of frustration” came to an end when Dale took the caution flag in the lead, and then one lap later took the checker flag.
Then something special happened, as Dale came down pit road each and every crew member from each and every team crossed the pit wall and lined up to shake Dale’s hand as he drove by. Dale then drove off and put a big number 3 in the grass of the front stretch.
Dale then witnessed something even more special than the line-up of crew members, and one that would make him realize just how significant this win was not only to just him but to his fans as well. Dale saw fans run out onto the infield of the front stretch and actually scoop up and keep the bits of mud and grass that he tore up with his car.
If I were there, I would have picked up that grass too.
RCR and DEI have put together a special CoT with Dale’s 1998 Daytona 500 paint scheme that will be on display at this year’s Daytona 500. Someone get a picture of it and send it to me and I’ll post it here.
They didn’t waste any time getting the die-casts out either. I’m sure you can get it virtually anywhere by now – see the photo.
I had just written this great piece of literary marvel, when the router on my lap top took a massive dive off the cliffs of Mexico, spattering on the rocks below.
I lost the work. Its gone I say.
I’m going to bed.
I’ll try to recreate my ‘mastery of prose’ before lunch today.
(not so) Good night!
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I took this shot on the infield. Daytona is a very fan friendly track. We had a wonderful experience and it was on Friday 2/8/08 with only ARCA and Shootout practice going on. There were maybe 300 people on the infield and the tickets were a whopping $15!
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