He was known as Mr. Daytona – winning everything on the track…except the Great American Race! During his career, Dale Earnhardt Sr amassed a total of 34 wins on the track at Daytona International Speedway between the Duel races, IROC races, Clash races, Busch Series (now Xfinity) races, and Firecracker 400 (now the Coke Zero 400) for a total of 30 Daytona wins.
Twenty-five years ago on February 15, 1998 Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 after 20 tries. The ensuing celebration was one for the ages when he was met by EVERY crew member on pit road with the packed house cheering them along as Earnhardt drove slowly with his right side tires on the grass. …And he did it with a backup engine!
Crew chief Larry McReynolds compared watching Earnhardt win and the celebration that followed like watching your children open their presents on Christmas Day.
McReynolds said, “it was almost a perfect week down there. It’s almost like we could … do no wrong, fastest in every practice, won the (qualification) race, just every day the car got better. And then here in the last practice on Saturday, we have an engine issue, and we put a brand-new engine in there race morning.”
As it turned out, that would be Earnhardt’s only 500 win; just three years later, he died after hitting the fence head on while blocking for his DEI drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr and Michael Waltrip. Waltrip would go on to win the race with Junior coming in second. At the time of his death, Dale Earnhardt Sr had won a total of 34 races at Daytona, 76 NASCAR Cup Series races, and has seve Cup Series championships. He became a member of the Hall of Fame in its first class.
Remember the celebration of his Dad winning, Dale Earnhardt Jr said, “the lasting image for me of that day is (Earnhardt) coming down pit road and getting all the congratulations from all the teams. Every time I think about it, it makes me emotional because there are so many amazing people in this sport, but nobody’s ever received that type of pat on the back or whatever you want to call that moment. No competitor has ever had … pretty much the entire industry, drop that competitive guard and just go over and go, ‘Man, I’m happy for you. And boy, you’ve earned this handshake from me.’“
Dale Sr himself noted that he had won the Daytona 499 numerous times, but it was that last mile that proved to be his “torture of tantalus”. But on February 15, 1998, he led 69 of the final 70 laps of the 200 lap race.
The win came just one year after Earnhardt was involved in a crash that sent his car into a rollover. In the ambulance as the crew prepared to tow the car; Earnhardt noticed that the car was upright with all four tires up. He ran out of the ambulance and shooed the crew away saying he had a race to finish…and he did! He finished the race in 31st place, five laps down.
Speaking on Dale Sr’s 1998 win, NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton said, “I think the whole industry breathed the sigh of relief. He had gotten so close so many times, won so many different races in Daytona, but finally had gotten the Daytona 500. And all the championships and every accomplishment that Dale Sr. had, the only piece missing in his puzzle was Daytona 500. Everybody was wondering on the last couple of laps what was going to go wrong? And nothing did.”
Speaking on the spontaneous celebration of Dale Sr’s win Helton said, “how incredible was the spontaneity of everybody up and down pit road recognizing the fact that Dale Sr. had just won the Daytona 500?” You couldn’t have scripted it. You couldn’t have told them and said, ‘All right, everybody. Go down pit road.’ No. It was organically just done. Maybe two or three teams did it, and everybody said, ‘Well, let’s go join them.’ That line created itself in time for Dale Sr. to come down through there.”
Team owner Richard Childress remarked on Dale Sr’s 500 win saying, “for us to win that race, it was like for Dale taking that load off of his shoulders. Because he wanted to win it. He had won everything at Daytona in the past, 125s, 150s, the Busch Clash and all of the different races. But to win the Daytona 500, it was so special for him. And just for us to be a part of it was special because I knew what it meant to have the Daytona 500 on his resume.”
Feature photo credit: DaleEarnhardtSunglassesDriversSuit.jpg