A Tribute To Dale Earnhardt

gordonite said:
Dale Earnhardt was nascar. He was everything great about the sport rolled up into one very cool looking package.
In musical terms, Dale was Ted Nugent while everyone else was John Denver.

I remember a story Jeff Gordon told once about the first time he ran an IROC race. He was in the middle of a 3 wide with Dale on one side of him and Kenny Schrader on the other side. Jeff looked over at Schrader and he was intensely focused on driving his car, looking straight ahead. Jeff then looked over at Dale and Dale was looking right at Jeff with a big grin on his face. lol

Another good Dale moment was another IROC race at Daytona. I don't remember who it was but some F1 guy spun Dale out on the last lap.
Dale owned Daytona, so everyone was thinking the F1 guy was gonna get his ass beat. lol
When they brought the cars down pit road after the race, Dale got out of his car and quickly made his way over to the F1 guys car and was standing there waiting for him to get out. F1 guy was in no hurry to get out, so Dale said "Come on and get out of the car. I ain't never hit a man sittin' in his car". F1 guy got out and Dale gave him a friendly grab on his shoulder with a big smile and they both stood there and laughed about it.

Dale loved racing. When he had to sit out the Watkins Glen race after the terrible wreck at Dega, he was choking back tears talking about having to sit the race out.

Dale Earnhardt was nascar.
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He sat out the brickyard once because of injury and a camera caught him watching the race thru a chainlink fence, he actually was crying thats how much he loved to race
 
I have an entire room in my house filled with his memoriblia. Every wall is covered along with a #3 bowling ball and everything else you can think of. My wife calls it Dale's room.
I was lucky to have been able to go to a number of races over the years and watch him race while listening on my scanner.
What a character he could be in front of the camera. One of my favorites was at Michigan in the mid 90's during qualifying. Rain was in the area and while they were interviewing Dale, Jeff Gordon was on the track. Dale commented that if Jeff was smart he would pull off as it had just started raining on the back stretch. Sure enough Gordon comes off a turn and spins out. Dale turns to the camera and with that devious grin says I guess he ain't to smart. I laughed for days over that one.
I can't help but think if he was still around he might have taken Brian France out back behind the wood shed and straightened him out.
 
Kyle18fan said:
He sat out the brickyard once because of injury and a camera caught him watching the race thru a chainlink fence, he actually was crying thats how much he loved to race
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Now that you mention it, it was the Brickyard, and not the Glen race.
 
I used to love it when he would come off the track at Dega or Daytona, and get interviewed and you could tell he was pissed. He'd have the scowl on his face and start spewing how Nascar needed to change this and that with the plate cars. Sure enough they would listen too, changes would get made soon after, never happen today with all the chicken shiit drivers we have now.
 
gordonite said:
Now that you mention it, it was the Brickyard, and not the Glen race.
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I believe the race at the Glen was the week following Indy, If my memory is still as good as it used to be, Dale won the pole at the glen and finished the race (in pain) in 6th. However I don't remember the exact year.
 
racer8 said:
I believe the race at the Glen was the week following Indy, If my memory is still as good as it used to be, Dale won the pole at the glen and finished the race (in pain) in 6th. However I don't remember the exact year.
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I believe you are correct.
 
They used to show him in the garage during a race trying to patch a completely destroyed race car back together HIMSELF !!! I recall seeing one race where the crew had given up on repairing the car but Dale was still out there feverishly removing parts off the back up in hopes of getting to make a few more laps. There was not one ounce of quit in that man
 
Check out what he did at the 97 Daytona 500. I don't know how to add a link but it can be easily found on you tube.
 
dale.jpg
 
The first time I ever heard the name Dale Earnhardt was 1984. My best friend at the time was my neighbor James & his father was a huge fan of Dale. I only knew about Cale Yarborough & Richard Petty but mainly Yarborough because he was sponsored by Hardee's & they were always giving away free toys & he was from right up the road from where I lived. Jame's father told me if I'm going to be in his house, I better be rooting for Dale Earnhardt & he gave me the 1983 UMI Yearbook to read through. When I started watching NASCAR on a regular basis in 1989, I remembered the name, now he drove a cool looking black car & he was a badass on the racetrack. Dale Earnhardt did all the things I did like taking care of his animals & fishing & hunting, he was like me only he drove fast on Sundays. His death was truly like losing a family member, there will never be another like him...
 
I remember 13 years ago today very well. I remember thinking that the wreck Tony Stewart had earlier in the 500 was much worse, to be honest I didn't think much of Dale's wreck when it happened, I assumed he was OK. Then the longer I watched, the more serious it got and the more worried I got. I was absolutely shocked when I heard he didn't make it. That was a horrible day.
 
ToyYoda said:
I remember 13 years ago today very well. I remember thinking that the wreck Tony Stewart had earlier in the 500 was much worse, to be honest I didn't think much of Dale's wreck when it happened, I assumed he was OK. Then the longer I watched, the more serious it got and the more worried I got. I was absolutely shocked when I heard he didn't make it. That was a horrible day.
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Same here. It didn't seem to be much of a wreck. Nobody knew his belts weren't mounted properly and they had failed. Dale didn't seem to be too interested in safety and did things his way. Unfortunately he paid the ultimate price.
 
FenderBumper said:
Same here. It didn't seem to be much of a wreck. Nobody knew his belts weren't mounted properly and they had failed. Dale didn't seem to be too interested in safety and did things his way. Unfortunately he paid the ultimate price.
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I know when I first saw it I couldn't believe that it was that bad... of course I already knew he had died but I was expecting a big wreck not something like that.
 
The wreck was much worse than it appeared. A google search would yield the accident report associated with the investigation into the accident. It was hard to believe that while it looked pretty mild in comparison to other wrecks that we've seen, it was quite violent.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
The wreck was much worse than it appeared. A google search would yield the accident report associated with the investigation into the accident. It was hard to believe that while it looked pretty mild in comparison to other wrecks that we've seen, it was quite violent.
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"The force exerted was equivalent to a vertical drop from a height of 61.8 feet (18.8 m)."


Wow..
 
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