Photos for Headline Surfer / Dale Earnhardt loses his life in the No. 3 Chevy when he is inadvertently bumped from behind while in third place by Sterling Marlin trying to get to the front coming off of turn 4 with Michael Waltrip and Dale EarnhardtJr., 1 and 2. The elder Earnhardt would go sailing up into the outside concrete wall at 186 mph nearly head-on collecting the M&Ms car of Ken Schrader with him before both cars roll back across the track and into the grass. Waltrip and Junior, both in DEI cars, would finish 1-2. Dale Earnhardt was killed instantly.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Fans and racing teams alike will remain silent during the third lap of today's Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway will celebrate Dale Earnhardt’s career 10 years after his death in this very race.
Earnhardt, who posted a track record 34 victories over 21 seasons, was without question Daytona’s dominant driver of the 1980s and 1990s. He won at least once a season for 10 consecutive years from 1990 and 1999, including the 1998 Daytona 500, and spent nearly as much time in Victory Lane as behind the wheel of his iconic, Richard Childress-owned black No. 3 Chevrolet and other competition vehicles.
Earnhardt, who died at age 49 following a final lap accident in the Feb. 18, 2001, Daytona 500, was seemingly luckless in the “Great American Race,” finishing second four times before finally winning the 500 in 1998.
Sure victories slipped away due to bizarre circumstances, ranging from a seagull-damaged front fender to a last-lap flat tire.
Still, the seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion was hands-down the favorite every time the green flag waved in Daytona. He twice won the Coke Zero 400 and captured the Gatorade Duel at Daytona a dozen times, including every qualifying race between 1990 and 1999.
Earnhardt won the NASCAR Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300 seven of the 15 times he competed – capped by the final five races he entered between 1990 and 1994.
Earnhardt, who died at age 49 following a final lap accident in the Feb. 18, 2001, Daytona 500, was seemingly luckless in the “Great American Race,” finishing second four times before finally winning the 500 in 1998. Sure victories slipped away due to bizarre circumstances, ranging from a seagull-damaged front fender to a last-lap flat tire.
Still, the seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion was hands-down the favorite every time the green flag waved in Daytona. He twice won the Coke Zero 400 and captured the Gatorade Duel at Daytona a dozen times, including every qualifying race between 1990 and 1999. Earnhardt won the NASCAR Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300 seven of the 15 times he competed – capped by the final five races he entered between 1990 and 1994.
He finished outside the top five in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona only once, winning the non-points race six times including 1980, the first year Earnhardt became eligible.
His results in the now-discontinued International Race of Champions were similar: six victories in 13 starts against stars of both international and domestic racing series. Earnhardt’s success came as NASCAR’s live television era opened a window to millions of new fans. He became the face of the sport, especially in its signature event.
“Dale helped build this sport and make it what it is today and his legacy lives on,” said Brian France, NASCAR chairman of the board and chief executive officer.
Richard Petty, the sport’s only other seven-time champion and winner of the 1979 Daytona 500, the first in which Earnhardt competed, said of Earnhardt, “Dale came along at the right time. He took us to another level.”
Earnhardt came up the old-fashioned way as the son of Ralph Earnhardt, one of the South’s top short track competitors. He rose from the North Carolina mill town of Kannapolis, racing his own, underfunded cars throughout the region to finally make it to NASCAR’s premier level and become a hero to millions of blue collar fans – who saw themselves mirrored in Earnhardt’s signature aviator sunglasses.
Car owner and longtime friend Childress explains it this way: “So many people knew Dale Earnhardt the race car driver but they also knew him as a person that worked on his farm throwing hay and tending his cattle. “He worked every day and enjoyed it. That’s what fans loved about him.”