3

If you are unsure what this post is about by the title then you probably want to stop reading here and find something else to do with your time that will be more meaningful.

I would be remiss if I did not post about last weekends events in Daytona Beach, FL and a little race called the DAYTONA 500. On Friday, February 18th they remembered the 10 year anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's death in Turn 4. For NASCAR fans everyone knows where they were that day. It's like everyone knows where you were when the Space Shuttle Challenger crashed, the Berlin Wall came down, JFK was shot, Pearl Harbor,...etc. Where were you on Sunday, February 18th, 2001? I was in the infield at The Daytona 500. A group of guys made a yearly pilgrimage every February to take part in the greatest redneck sport in the USA (this was before NASCAR went corporate...actually, we stopped going to the Daytona 500 when it went corporate and the bean counters took over and began to run the average Joe 6 Pack off from the infield). I did this with them I can't remember how many years - like 7 or 8 years (mid 90's to early 2000's). This wasn't a five star resort weekend down on Daytona Beach (I guess it depends upon who you asked, if it was 5 star). We lived in a old school bus (actually old is a relative term because I am pretty sure SC is still using the exact same style of bus we had), painted faded red with a black stripe (which was painted in the rain a couple of days before the maiden voyage from Tifton, GA to Daytona Beach) with all the seats taken out, no running water, no restroom (except the great outdoors and your neighbors tire), three sofas, an army cot, a foam egg create, and a platform on top of the bus to watch the race with your cooler and your friends (I am going to try to locate a picture of the bus but it was before digital cameras, so it not quite as easy as looking on your computer for it). The typically plan for Raceweeks was my friends in GA would take the bus to Daytona the Saturday two weeks before the Daytona 500 to get in line for the infield for the NASCAR races and leave it for a week and a half. We would arrive in Daytona on Wednesday or Thursday in time to watch the Twin 125's, get our passes (we might have been in a school bus, living in the infield but we had All - Access passes that let us come and go as we pleased (everyone else was stuck inside the track once they were in the infield. They could walk out but they could not drive their car out. We could. I don't think I could have survived three days just in the infield without being able to leave) and get ready to enter the infield in the bus with our exit vehicles behind the bus. If you have ever wondered what it was like during the land rushes come talk to me. The first couple of years it was the wild west, everyone for themselves with no organization or direction on where to park - put it anywhere you want it in Turns 1, 2 and the down the backstretch in front of the lake (great view but so far from the track). We always tried to get at the exit of Turn 2 where the action happened coming out of the corner or down the backstretch. Each morning when you would wake up and look outside more and more people had piled into the infield and somehow found a place to park in places you didn't think a car or motor home could fit. I could tell you the stories about late night in the infield or our trips outside the tracks to the local watering holes but that will be for a different post or invite me over one Sunday afternoon and we can drink some beer, watch the race and I can tell you about life in the infield at Daytona International Speedway during Speedweeks. Back to February 18, 2001, we were not able to see the crash in Turn 4 but heard about it and didn't know the extent of Dale's injuries but as we were in line to leave (which is another painfully long story that happened every year) just sitting there, we heard the announcement over the track PA system that Dale Earnhardt had died from injuries sustained in the crash in Turn 4 on the last lap of the Daytona 500 in which he had been blocking everybody behind him because Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr were leading the race and he owned both the cars. When I heard the news, I wanted to immediately be home so I could see wreck (my father would record the race for me so I could watch it when I got home to see any excitement that I might have missed). When I finally saw the wreck, I like everyone else wondered how that could have killed him. I had watched him flip and take what looked like much harder hits and walk away.

1996 Talladega


1997 Daytona


2001 Daytona


Ever since February 18, 2001, NASCAR hasn't been the same. On that day they lost the one person that like him or hate him was the face of NASCAR. He was a country boy from Kannapolis, NC that could wheel a race car around a track. He caused you to watch every race. Why is college football, the NFL and any other sport so popular? The fans, the rivalry and the passion it creates(what I am trying to say is the crazyness it causes people to do and purchase)...Every sports needs an evil empire and Dale Earnhardt was that for NASCAR because he was the best and to be the best you had beat him. (Don't understand what I am talking about...surely you have watched wrassling. It survives on the premise of good vs evil and I watched it for that reason. I watched Junkyard Dog, Nature Boy Rick Flair, Dusty Rhoades, The Four Horsemen - every week. People still to this day watch it (know it is fake) and pay $50 to watch it on pay-per-view...do you understand, now what I am talking about - passionate fans cause interest, tv ratings and butts in the seat) People liked him because he was a winner (7 time NASCAR champ) and people hated him because he was a winner. He caused every fan to choose a side, either you were part of the 3 Nation or you were against number 3. I was never a 3 fan. I didn't have the tattoo's, the number 3 on the car, the hats, shirts, jackets, koozies, key chains, cups, sunglasses or the flag flying at the house but if you were for him you did. I was in the underdog group - pulling for anyone (almost anyone) except the 3. It was perfect when he changed from yellow and blue Wrangler to the black and silver/white GM Goodwrench and everyone feared looking in the mirror and seeing the INTIMIDATOR coming. In case you weren't sure he was behind you, he would give you a tap and a wave. He was the Chuck Norris of NASCAR.





NASCAR changed that Sunday in 2001 and it hasn't ever been the same. No one has been able to fill those shoes and no could ever fill those shoes. NASCAR had scuffles and some dust up between the drivers but it's different that when Dale was around. They tried to bring it back last year with a "settle it on the track" attitude from NASCAR. It added some excitement but it wasn't the same. Dale was the EF Hutton of NASCAR. When he spoke everybody listened. Out of every tragedy something good generally happens. And as a result of his crash and death, NASCAR is 100% safer than it was 10 years ago - the cars, the helmets, the safety equipment, the safer barriers at the tracks. After 10 years they are still asking the same question that George Jones asked "Who's Gonna Fill There Shoes?".

I thought we were going to have the fairy tale ending and light the fire under the conspirator theory (NASCAR is fixed) camp when Dale Jr won the pole for the race and was in contention for the win when he had a flat tire that caused him to pit and then get caught up in a wreck. It would have been a good ending but it worked out pretty good with Trevor Bayne winning and putting the 21 of the Wood Brothers back in victory lane. It was just what NASCAR needed a flashback from the past with old school 21 paint scheme of David Pearson and a young (actually a kid - 20 years old who couldn't legally drink a beer in victory lane) up and coming hero winning the biggest race in NASCAR. All we need now is a villian.

Race Recap