February 18th, 2001, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach,
Florida:

"and the rooockets red glaaare, the bombs buuursting inn aaiirr, gave
prooof through the niiight, that are flag was still theeeeeeerrrrreeee,
oh say does that star spangled, banner yet waaaaaaaaaaaaved, for the
laaand of the freeeeeee, and the hoooome of thhheeeee, braaave,
braaaaave, braaaaaaave

the jets flew formation over the track and the crowds cheered, the
drivers were in their cars waiting for the command.

gentlemeeeen!...staaarrrt!, yooouurr!, engiiiinneess!!!

engines roared to life filling the air above the track with a loud
rumble, the gleaming black #3 rolls out of the pits taking his qualified
position of third place as the rest of the field rolls out onto the
track with him.
these were some of the final moments of one of motor racing's greatest
drivers that ever lived (though not all of them from that day).
but to really understand the legacy of this man and his famous #3
machine, we would need to go back to the very beginning.
His early and personal life:
Ralph Earnhardt Sr. (or Dale Earnhardt Sr.) was born in Kannapolis,
North Carolina on April 29th, 1951.
Dale had four siblings, two brothers named Danny, and Randy (who died in
2013), and two sisters named Cathy, and Kaye (who died in 2015).
he was the third child of of his father Ralph Lee Earnhardt, a Nascar
Sportsman Division champion and one of the best short drivers of the
Carolinas who won the Sportsman Division Championship only once in 1956
at the Greenville Pickens Speedway.
in 1972 Dale Earnhardt raced his father at the Metrolina Speedway in a
race that featured semi mod and sportsman division race cars.
inspite of his father not wanting him to persue a career as a racer,
Dale dropped out of highschool to persue his dream to become a race car
driver.
Ralph was a hard teacher on him, but Dale looked to him as a good
mentor, but it was not to last for long, in 1973, at the age of 45,
Ralph Earnhardt died from a heart attack at his home, Dale had lost his
father, his mentor, it would be many years before Dale felt he had
finally proven to his father how great a driver he has become.
in 1968, at age 17, he married his first wife, Latane Brown.
with her, they had their first son, Kerry, a year later in 1969, Dale
and Latane didn't stay married for long however, because he was soo
determined to make racing work for him as a means to support his family,
they divorced shortly after in 1970, but later on in 1971, he married
his second wife Brenda Gee (who was the daughter of a race car builder
named Robert Gee who built race cars for Nascar teams).
in his second marriage Dale had two more children, a daughter named
Kelly Earnhardt in 1972, and a son named who we know today, Dale
Earnhardt Jr in 1974, but unfortunately just his first marriage and not
long after Dale Jr was born, the two of them divorced and that shortly
after is when he married his third and final wife, Teresa Houston (now
known as Teresa Earnhardt) in 1982, Teresa would later give birth to a
daughter, Taylor Nicole Earnhardt, in 1988 (Taylor would grow up and
marry and she along with her husband would become professional rodeo
performers).
Cup Series career (1975-1978):
in 1975, he made his Winston Cup debut at the Charlotte Motor Speedway
competing in the World 600.
but Earnhardt's pro racing career began in 1974 with his debut in the
Nascar Grand National Series driving an unofficial invitational
exhibition race at the Metrolina Speedway (that racetrack is now defunct
today), near the end of that race with only 8 laps to go he got under
driver Richard Childress and spun him out while racing him for third
position, he drove his #8 Ed Negre Dodge Charger to a 22nd place finish
in that race just ahead of him (dale would later in his career drive for
Richard Childress), afterwards Dale competed in eight more races until
1979.
in 1975, he made his Winston Cup debut at the Charlotte Motor Speedway
competing in the World 600.

(1979-1980):
in 1979, he joined Rod Usterland Racing for the 1979 racing season that
featured a rookie class of drivers who would later become stars in
Nascar which included himself, Harry Gant, and Terry Labonte in his
rookie season, Dale's 1979 season wasn't very bad at all, one win at
Bristol, four pole positions, eleven top fives, and seventeen top tens,
as a result he finished seventh in the points standings even though he
missed four races during the season due to a broken collar bone, in the
end he won rookie of the year.
during his sophmore season, Earnhardt along with a 20 year old young man
named Doug Richert as his crew chief, began the season with a victory in
the Busch Clash, more wins followed later in his year with at Atlanta,
Bristol, Nashville, Martinsville, and Charlotte, as a result, he won his
first Cup Championship, he became the only driver in Nascar who has won
rookie of the year in their first year and then the championship the
next year after, he was also the third driver in Nascar to win both
rookie of the year and the Cup Championship following David Pearson
(1960, 1966), Richard Petty (1959, 1964), nine more drivers have sinced
joined this roster, Nine drivers have since joined this exclusive club:
Rusty Wallace (1984, 1989), Alan Kulwicki (1986, 1992), Jeff Gordon
(1993, 1995), Tony Stewart (1999, 2002), Matt Kenseth (2000, 2003),
Kevin Harvick (2001, 2014), Kyle Busch (2005, 2015), Joey Logano (2009,
2018), and Chase Elliott (2016, 2020).
(1981) Rod Osterlund Racing, Stacy Racing, and Richard Childress Racing:
1981 would prove to be a tumultuous season for Dale, 16 races into the
racing season, Rod Usterlund out of nowhere and for whatever reason sold
his team to a Kentucky entrepreneur named Jim Stacey who joined Nascar
back in 1977, after driving four more races for Stacey, Earnhardt parted
ways with Jim Stacey and started driving for Richard Childress driving
Pontiacs for him and managed to finish seventh in the season point
standings, afterwards he parted ways from Richard Childress Racing (RCR)
citing a lack of chemistry between them, which is pretty ironic
considering the fact that he and Richard Childress would have strongest
friendship between each other in the end and he would drive for him for
the rest of his career.
(1982-1983) Bud Moore Engineering:
yes believe it or not, there was a time in his career for a couple of
years that Dale Earnhardt (a man pretty much synonymous with driving
Chevys) drove a Ford, no surprise there actually, he did start off
driving a pink dirt track modified Ford Fairlane back when he was
competing in local dirt track races, so why not a blue and yellow
Wrangler sponsored Thunderbird?.
from 1982 to 1983 Dale drove for Bud Moore driving the #15 Wrangler
Jeans Ford Thunderbird, however throughout the 1982 season he struggled
with only one win (at Darlington) to his name, he failed to finish
fifteen races as a result and completed the season placing 12th in the
points standings, the absolute worst of his career.
he even suffered a broken kneecap from a crash at Pocono when he flipped
his car after making contact with Tim Richmond.
in 1983, Dale rebounded and won his first of twelve Twin 125 Daytona
qualifying races, he won at Nashville and Talladega, finishing eigth in
the points standings.

(1984-2001) Return to Richard Childress Racing:

(1984-1985)
after the 1983 season had concluded, Dale returned to RCR, replacing
Ricky rudd in the #3 car, Ricky Rudd meanwhile took Earnhardt's place in
the #15 car on the Bud Moore team.
Wrangler Jeans not wanting to lose their back coutry poster boy decided
to sponsor both Dale Earnhardt's and Ricky Rudd's cars at their
respective teams, because who would be better at helping Wrangler sell
jeans than a back country farming, deer hunting, Carolina country boy
from Kannapolis?.
during the 1984 and 1985 seasons, Dale won six races at Talladega,
Atlanta, Richmond, won two times at Bristol, and Martinssville, where he
finished four and eight in the points standings for both seasons.

(1986-1987)
the 1986 Nascar season prove to be a good season for Dale, he won his
second Nascar Cup Series Championship as well as the first owner's
championship for Richard Childress Racing, he won five races and
acheived 16 top five finishes and 23 top tens.
he successfully defended his championship the following year in 1987,
winning times and thus winning the championship by 489 points over Bill
Elliot.
in the process, Dale set a new record of four consecutive wins and won
five of the first ten races.
in 1987, during the Winston All-Star Race, Dale Earnhardt and Bill
Elliot were battling for the lead when Bill fish-tailed Dale's car and
almost put in a slide, but amazingly, Dale held his car firm driving
through a corner of the front infield grass and holds on to the lead,
this moment famously became known as "the pass in the grass", and
afterwards Dale earned his most famous and well known nickname, "the
Intimidator", a nickname that would synonomous with his name and image
and in Nascar merchandise marketing and along with his trademark #3.
after the Winston All-Star Race, an angry disgruntled fan sent a death
threat letter to Nascar president Bill France Jr threatening to kill
Dale Earnhardt at either Pocono, Watkins Glen, or Dover, prompting the
FBI to step in provide protection for Earnhardt at all three tracks, the
case was closed after those three races came to an end without incident,
it was certainly a scary time for Earnhardt in his career.

(1988-1989)
the 1988 season was a season in which Dale Earnhardt had a new sponsor
and paint scheme, the colors and sponsor of his car soon changed from
the blue and yellow Wrangler Jeans Chevrolet, to the trademark black and
silver GM Goodwrench Chevrolet and that famous #3 remained on his car.
during the season, he won three races finishing third in the points
standings behind Bill Elliot in first and Rusty Wallace in second.
the next following year, 1989, Dale won five races, but late in the 1989
season, a spin out at North Wilkesboro cost him the 1989 Cup Series
Championship, as Rusty Wallace edged him out for the title.

(1990-1995)
1990, this was the year that your's truly who is telling this story was
born, it was also the year Dale won his fourth Cup Series title, but
will get to that shortly, the 1990 season started pretty good for the
Intimidator, he won the Busch Clash exhibition race as well as both
Gatorade duels, but when it came for the 1990 Daytona 500, near the end
of the race, he had a dominent forty second lead when suddenly, a
caution came out with only a handful of laps to go, when the green
waved, Dale was leading Derrike Cope, but on the final lap, Dale ran
over some debris (a piece of metal that was laying on the track), which
later turned to be a bell housing in turn 4 (oh dear), as a result it
cut one of his tires which ultimately cost him the lead leaving Derrike
Cope to take lead and win the race, this was a major disappointment for
Earnhardt who wound up finishing the race in fifth place especially
after leading 155 of the 200 lap race.
after the race, the GM Goodwrench team took the flat tire and hung it on
the shop wall to serve as a reminder of how close the team came of
winning the Daytona 500.
later in the season, Dale won nine races and ultimately won his fourth
Cup Series title, beating Mark Martin to it by 26 points, he also became
the first multy winner of the annual Winston All-Star Race.
in 1991, won four races and won his fifth Cup Series title beating Ricky
Rudd to the title by a whopping 195 points, one of his came from North
Wilkesboro where Hary Gant had a chance to win that race and set a
record winning his fifth consecutive career race win breaking Dale's
record if he did, but late in the race, Gant lost his brakes thus
Earnhardt had the chance he needed to pass Hary for the win and maintain
his record.
1992 though would be a disappointing season for Dale, he only acheived
one race win, it was at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600
ending a 13 race long winning streak that was set by the Ford teams.
in the end, Dale finished season 12th in the points standings, the
lowest he ever finished racing for Richard Childress, after the season
concluded he went to the annual Nascar awards banquet with Rusty Wallace
but he didn't get the best seat in the house.
Wallace stated that he and Earnhardt had to sit on the backs of their
chairs to see, and Earnhardt said "this sucks, I should have gone
hunting."
at the end of the year, longtime crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine left to
become a driver, Andy Petree took over as Dale's new crew chief, hiring
Petree turned out to be a beneficial move, as Dale returned to the front
in 1993.
he once again came close to winning the Daytona 500, but once again
things went wrong that cost him a chance to win the great American race
once again, but he at least dominated Speedweeks prior to the 500.
he won six more races that year en route to his sixth Cup Series title
including wins in the Coca-Cola 600, and the Winston All-Star Race both
at Charlotte, and the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, beating Rusty Wallace for
the championship by 80 points.
on November 14th, 1993, after the final race of the season, the Hooters
500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the race winner Rusty Wallace and the
1993 Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, did a duel Polish vicotry lap
together to commemerate 1992 Daytona 500 winner Davey Allison and 1992
Cup Series champion Alan Kulwicki, waving the flags of their numbers.
who both died in seperate flight accidents during the season.
in 1994, Dale had achieved what he thought was impossible, he had won
his seventh Nascar Cup Series title, tying Richard Petty, the first
seven time champion (as of today, Jimmy Johnson a few years back became
a seven time Nascar Cup Series champion, becoming the third seven timer
in the sport).
Dale was very consistent that year, scoring four career wins, and after
Ernie Irvan was sidelined after suffering a near fatal crash at Michigan
(they were both tied in the points prior to the crash), Dale won the
championship beting out Mark Martin by a massive 400 points, he sealed
his chances for the title by winning a race at Rockingham, it would be
his final Cup Series title.
next year later in 1995, he started the season off with a second place
finish in the Daytona 500, finishing behind the winner, Sterling Marlin.
he won five races in the 1995 season, inlcuding his first road course
race win at Sonoma Raceway (formerly known as Sears Pint Raceway and
Infineon Raceway), he even won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor
Speedway, a win he called the biggest win of his career, but in the end,
Dale lost his chance for an eigth Cup Series title to Jeff Gordon by 34
points.

(1996-1999)
the 1996 season pretty much started for Dale Earnhardt the same way as
it had started for him back in 1993, he dominated Daytona Speedweeks but
yet finshed in second place in te following Daytona 500 to winner Dale
Jarrett for the second time.
he early in the season, winning consecutive victories at Rockingham and
Atlanta, on July 28th in the DieHard 500 at Talladega, he was second and
chasing his eigth Nascar Cup Series title, despite the departure of his
crew chief Andy Petree, late in the race, Ernie Irvan lost control of
his #28 Havoline Ford after making contact with Sterling Marlin's #4
Kodak Chevrolet and caused a crash which Earnhardt himself then got
caught up in, sending his car crashing into the on the tri-oval section
of the track head on at almost 200 miles per hour.
after hitting the wall, his car flipped sliding on it's roof across the
track right in front of traffic, his car was then hit in the roof and
windshield.
thisaccident as well as asimular accident that led to the death of
Russell Phillips (another racer) at Charlotte, led Nascar to mandate a
new safety feature in all stock cars, it was called, the Earnhardt Bar,
a metal brace located in the middle of the windshield that reinforces
the roof in case of anymore simular crashes in the forseeable future,
this bar was also later mandated in the Nascar owned IMSA Sportscar
Championship as well as it's predecessors for road racing.
rain delays canceled the live telecast of the race, so many fans didn't
see the crash (myself included I was a kid at the time growing up
watching the Nascar races and I wasn't aware of it that day), and they
only saw it for the first time during that night's sports newscast.
video footage showed what appeared to look like a fatal crash, but once
paramedics arrived, Earnhardt climbed out of his car and waved to the
crowd to let them know he's alright, refusing to be loaded on a
stretcher depiste a broken collarbone, sternum, and shoulder blade.
although the accident looked like it would end his season early, Dale
refused to stay out of the car, the next week at Indianapolis, he
started the race but got out of his car on the first pit stop allowing
his team mate Mike Skinner to take the wheel.
when asked, Earnhardt said that vacating the #3 car was the hardest
thing he had ever done.
the following weekend at Watkins Glen, he drove the #3 car to the
fastest time in qualifying earning the True Grit Pole award.
t-shirts with Dale EArnhardt's face were quickly printed up brandishing
the caption, "it hurts good".
Dale led for most of the race and looked to have victory in hand, but
fatigue took it's toll on him and he ended up finishing the race in 6th
place, he did not win again in 1996 but still finished in fourth place
in the points behind Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Jarrett.
later on, David Smith departed as Earnhardt's crew chief and departed
RCR at the end of the year for personal reasons and was replaced by
Larry McReynolds.
In 1997, Earnhardt went winless for only the second time in his career.
The only (non-points) win came during Speedweeks at Daytona in the Twin
125-mile qualifying race, his record eighth-straight win in the event.
Once again in the hunt for the Daytona 500 with 10 laps to go, Earnhardt
was taken out of contention by a late crash which sent his car upside
down on the backstretch. He hit the low point of his year when he
blacked out early in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington in
September, causing him to hit the wall. Afterward, he was disoriented,
and it took several laps before he could find his pit stall. When asked,
Earnhardt complained of double vision which made it difficult to pit.
Mike Dillon (Richard Childress's son-in-law) was brought in to relieve
Earnhardt for the remainder of the race. Earnhardt was evaluated at a
local hospital and cleared to race the next week, but the cause of the
blackout and double vision was never determined. Despite no wins, the
Richard Childress Racing team finished the season fifth in the final
standings.
On February 15, 1998, Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 in his 20th
attempt after failing to win in his previous 19 attempts.
He began the season by winning his Twin 125-mile qualifier race for the
ninth straight year, and the week before was the first to drive around
the track under the newly installed lights, for coincidentally 20 laps.
On race day, he showed himself to be a contender early. Halfway through
the race, however, it seemed that Jeff Gordon had the upper hand. But by
lap 138, Earnhardt had taken the lead and thanks to a push by teammate
Mike Skinner, he maintained it. Earnhardt made it to the caution-
checkered flag before Bobby Labonte. Afterwards, there was a large show
of respect for Earnhardt, in which every crew member of every team lined
pit road to shake his hand as he made his way to victory lane.
Earnhardt
then drove his No. 3 into the infield grass, starting a trend of post-
race celebrations. He spun the car twice, throwing grass and leaving
tire tracks in the shape of a No. 3 in the grass. He then spoke about
the victory, saying, "I have had a lot of great fans and people behind
me all through the years and I just can't thank them enough.
The Daytona
500 is ours. We won it, we won it, we won it!" The rest of the season
did not go as well, and the Daytona 500 was his only victory that year.
Despite that, he did almost pull off a Daytona sweep, where he was one
of the contenders for the win in the first nighttime Pepsi 400, but a
pit stop late in the race in which a rogue tire cost him the race win.
He slipped to 12th in the point standings halfway through the season,
and Richard Childress decided to make a crew chief change, taking Mike
Skinner's crew chief Kevin Hamlin and putting him with Earnhardt while
giving Skinner Larry McReynolds (Earnhardt's crew chief). Earnhardt
finished the 1998 season eighth in the final points standings.
Before the 1999 season, fans began discussing Earnhardt's age and
speculating that with his son, Dale Jr., making his Winston Cup debut,
Earnhardt might be contemplating retirement. Earnhardt swept both races
for the year at Talladega, leading some to conclude that his talent had
become limited to the restrictor plate tracks, which require a unique
skill set and an exceptionally powerful racecar to win. But halfway
through the year, Earnhardt began to show some of the old spark. In the
August race at Michigan, he led laps late in the race and nearly pulled
off his first win on a non-restrictor-plate track since 1996. One week
later, he provided NASCAR with one of its most controversial moments. At
the Bristol night race, Earnhardt found himself in contention to win his
first short track race since Martinsville in 1995. When a caution came
out with 15 laps to go, leader Terry Labonte got hit from behind by the
lapped car of Darrell Waltrip. His spin put Earnhardt in the lead with
five cars between him and Labonte with 5 laps to go. Labonte had four
fresh tires, and Earnhardt was driving on old tires, which made
Earnhardt's car considerably slower. Labonte caught Earnhardt and passed
him coming to the white flag, but Earnhardt drove hard into turn two,
bumping Labonte and spinning him around. Earnhardt collected the win
while spectators booed and made obscene gestures. "I didn't mean to turn
him around, I just wanted to rattle his cage," Earnhardt said of the
incident. He finished seventh in the standings that year.

(2000)
In the 2000 season, Earnhardt had a resurgence, which was commonly
attributed to neck surgery he underwent to correct a lingering injury
from his 1996 Talladega crash. He scored what were considered the two
most exciting wins of the year—winning by 0.010 seconds over Bobby
Labonte at Atlanta, then gaining seventeen positions in the final four
laps to win at Talladega, claiming his only No Bull million-dollar bonus
along with his record 10th win at the track. Earnhardt also had second-
place runs at Richmond and Martinsville, tracks where he had struggled
through the late 1990s. On the strength of those performances, Earnhardt
got to second in the standings. However, poor performances at the road
course of Watkins Glen, where he wrecked coming out of the chicane, a
wreck with Kenny Irwin Jr. while leading the spring race at Bristol, and
mid-pack runs at intermediate tracks like Charlotte and Dover in a
season dominated by the Ford Taurus in those tracks from Roush, Yates,
and Penske, coupled with Bobby Labonte's extreme consistency, denied
Earnhardt an eighth championship title. Earnhardt finished 2000 with 2
wins, 13 top fives, 24 top tens, an average finish of 9.4, and was the
only driver besides Labonte to finish the season with zero DNF's.

February 18th, 2001:
"ladies and gentleman, welcome to the 2001 Daytona 500"

it's February 2001, a new Nascar season is starting and the Daytona 500
was going to start, after the invocation (prayer) was said and the
national anthem recited, the famous words in motor racing were spoken.

gentlemeeeen!...staaarrrt!, yooouurr!, engiiiinneess!!!

engines were fired and the pace led the field out onto the track for a
warm up, among them Dale had two drivers on his race team Dale EArnhardt
Inc. (D.E.I, but that's a story for another time) the two drivers were
his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the #8 Budweiser Checvrolet, and Michael
Waltrip in the #15 Napa Chevrolet, out of both of these drivers Michael
Waltrip was the man to watch that day, Michael had been a driver in
Nascar for 16 years at this point and yet he had never won a race, but
2001 was going to be different this time.

Mike Joy: every driver dreams of winning the Daytona 500, Michael
Waltrip just drams of winning, this race, any race to end his career
long winless streak.

as the race went on, it was going well for Dale and his drivers Michael
Waltrip and Dale Jr., holding back Stirling Marlin and Ken Schrader
defending his third place position while selflessly guarding the first
and second place positions of Waltrip and Jr., they head into final,
Michael Waltrip is leading followed by Dale Jr. behind him in second
place, they're less than one mile from finish line, broadcastors Mike
Joy and Darrell Waltrip are on their as they broadcast final moments of
the final lap to the finish, suddenly

broadcastors: the 3 car an-OH!, big trouble!, big wreck behind them!, to
the flag!

Darrell Waltrip: you got it Mikey, YOU GOT IIIIT!!, MIKEEEEY!!

Mike Joy: Michael Waltrip wins!

Darrell Waltrip: WOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!

Mike Joy: Scharder has climbed out of his car walking over to
Earnhardt's car to check to see if he's alright, they both crashed in
turns three and four

Darrell Waltrip: cries in the broadcasting booth

Mike Joy: Darrell?...is this better than winning it?

Darrell Waltrip: oh it's much better, I just hope Dale's ok, maybe he's
ok

without warning Dale's black #3 went into the wall head on, he was
trying to make a move to block Sterling Marlin the silver #40 Dodge but
doesn't realize that his car was entirely clear of Marlin, veers left to
cut him off and fishtails his own car, the car goes down into the apron
and suddenly turns to the right and slides back up the track in turn
4, he collides with Ken Schrader's #36 Pontiac and hits the wall at an
angle, for about a few yards he and Schrader slide along wall before
sliding down and coming to a stop on the infield grass.
Schrader, only sustaining a leg or an ankle injury limped over to Dale's
car to see if he was ok, what he saw in the car he will never talk about
for the remainder of his life which meant even to this day if you asked him
he will never tell you, which is perfectly alright, what he saw in
Dale's car shouldn't be talked about at all.

Mike Joy: welcome back to live coverage at the Daytona International
Speedway where Michael Waltrip had just won his first career Nascar Cup
Series win.

for Michael Waltrip it should've a day triumph and celebration for him,
he had finally won his first Cup Series race, the Daytona 500 of all races, it was
supposed the day of his racing career, but it turned into a day of grief
for him when Ken Schrader came up to Michael to tell him what has
happened, Michael's emotions quickly went from excitement to worry, and
then to sadness and grief after hearing an announcement from Nascar
president Mike Helton, meanwhile the Fox broadcastors were still
covering the post race coverage.

Mike Joy: we're back at Daytona, you're looking inside turn 3 where Ken
Schrader has climbed from his car and where rescue workers are helping
Dale Earnhardt to get out of his car, Dale Earnmhardt Jr. at dead run
towards the track's infield care center, while his car owner-here's what
happened up in turn 3.

Darrel Waltrip: oof, oh this is huge with the head on, that tv does not
do that justice, that's an incredible impact head on, throws you forward
in the car, uuh, those are the kind of accidents that are absolutely
frightening.

going back to Mike Helton, he had only been president of Nascar for two
years at the time and Dale's death came as a shock, he has never had to
make such an announcement as this.

Mike Helton: this has to be, the toughtest announcement I ever had to
make as president, but at the end of the final lap of the Daytona 500,
we lost Dale Earnhardt.

and the news was quick pick up on it afterwards.
the news media: https://youtu.be/v2A0yE4GSI0
and...that's what happened, true stories sometimes don't have happy or
satisfying endings.
but Dale leaves behind legacy that is unmatched by anyone else, there's
a reason why he's still remembered by many today and still remained one
of the biggest names in Motorsports, as long as there are still fans
even ones that never watched him raced before but heard the stories
about him and seen videos on him and seen the cars he raced.
in 2003 ESPN did a movie titled "3" casting actor Barry Pepper as Dale
Earnhardt (watching that movie every February before or the DAytona 500
is now one of my traditions), he's even had a road and street named
after him in his home state of North Carolina, even a metal band from
North Carolina called Weedeater (don't ask) wrote and performed a song
that payed homage to Dale Earnhardt titled "No 3" you can find this song
on youtube if you're ever curious along with the "3" movie, oh yes
there's a documentary film on him titled "Dale" with Paul Newman
narrating, you can also find movie that on youtube as well.
and there was even this magazine you see in the image, it's likely just
been taken off store shelves now,but if you managed to get one, hold on
to it, it could be worth something one day.

in memory of Dale Earnhardt 1951-2001

review over, I hope you all enjoyed reading it, special thanks to
Wikipedia for the source of info for this review, thank you old
childhood toy Dale Earnhardt stock car collectible, I know you've been
through childhood hell with me waay back as a kid and I frightfully
apologize for that but I was a kid back then, how was I supposed to know
day valuable the moment my grandmother gave you to me as a gift, but
look on the bright side, at least your paint scheme is still intacked
enough to where it's still reckognisable, so it's not the end of the
world. X3