14 Years Ago Today

Yggdrasil said:
I remember I was in high school at the time, well I was getting ready for school and my next door neighbor rushed over and said "man there's a huge crash in the race". At school I was anxious to get home and watch the VCR I'd recorded and temptation got the better of me and I snuck into a classroom with the Internet to look at the results. (This became a Monday morning ritual for me at school). The Internet said Dale was in hospital.

I thought it must have been a heck of a crash but when I watched the race it wasn't the pile up on the back stretch, I watched the last lap and I couldn't understand what had happened until they went into turn 3..

For one of the first times I can remember the Australian media was finally all over NASCAR. Just unfortunately for the wrong reasons.
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Welcome to the forum Yggdrasil , great post .
 
kymartin6 said:
Okay....... at the expense of of boring you guys to death. I don't know if I've posted my feelings about Big E here or not..... if I have.... just disregard this post.


I was never ever a Big E fan....... I hated him for 4 hours a week. I was always a Mark Martin fan. His driving style on the track pissed me off in the worst way. He could wreck a car by making that left slide move and make it look like he never touched 'em. His attitude was ****y. On a seperate side....... I respected him so much for what he could do with a car those 4 hours and I TOTALLY respected him for what he done the rest of the week. I will never forget that day that he got killed. Never ever did I think in my wildest dreams that I would miss a man as much as I miss him. Racing just hasn't been the same for me.



I sure miss you Dale.......



RIP Ralph Dale Earnhardt...........
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Yessir, you took the words right out of my mouth. Well said.
 
YoungBigE.jpg


I latched on the Dale as my driver in the early 80s. His "balls to the wall, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" attitude just struck a chord. To my eternal sorrow, I never saw him win in person. But I was present to see his joy when Little E won his first races in Busch and Cup at Texas.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
It is hard to believe that there are people in service to our country and others eligible to vote that were to young to remember the #3 Goodwrench Chevrolet and Dale. Time marches on.
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I felt that way watching SNL... there are people in their 30s who don't even know who John Belushi was or Gilda Radner. But still.. hard to believe they've been gone almost 33 and 25 years respectively.
 
Lin said:
I felt that way watching SNL... there are people in their 30s who don't even know who John Belushi was or Gilda Radner. But still.. hard to believe they've been gone almost 33 and 25 years respectively.
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Dang Lin........ your post almost brought tears to my eyes thinking about the greats we used to have on SNL.....
 
kymartin6 said:
Dang Lin........ your post almost brought tears to my eyes thinking about the greats we used to have on SNL.....
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well sorry.. it was an interesting show the other night.. but I don't want to take away from this Dale tribute. I was just responding to Skoal's remark. Gilda and John seem so long ago though. Dale's death still doesn't seem that long ago but 14 years really is a long time. We'll never have anyone like him again. I love that pic that someone posted above with Dale and Chase though. I wonder what the future holds for him.
 
Kmart Understand your point about hating Big E but missing him. I was a Rusty fan those early years. Enough said.

I really really really hope we see some other drivers that live breathe and sleep NASCAR in the future. I saw a show on Big E once and it had him fishing on his property and he got real quiet when they asked him about what he would do if he was not racing. The man literally did not know. He lived and breathed and ate and slept racing. That pic clutch posted with sleeping in his car really made me smile.
 
DanicaFreak said:
Kmart Understand your point about hating Big E but missing him. I was a Rusty fan those early years. Enough said.

I really really really hope we see some other drivers that live breathe and sleep NASCAR in the future. I saw a show on Big E once and it had him fishing on his property and he got real quiet when they asked him about what he would do if he was not racing. The man literally did not know. He lived and breathed and ate and slept racing. That pic clutch posted with sleeping in his car really made me smile.
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As much as I hate to say it...... I really don't think we will ever have another Earnhardt. For some reason that none of us can put a finger on.......... He broke the mold at the very exact time that we needed that.
 
kymartin6 said:
As much as I hate to say it...... I really don't think we will ever have another Earnhardt. For some reason that none of us can put a finger on.......... He broke the mold at the very exact time that we needed that.
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you know...In a way I am saddened by that, but also happy.
 
kymartin6 said:
As much as I hate to say it...... I really don't think we will ever have another Earnhardt. For some reason that none of us can put a finger on.......... He broke the mold at the very exact time that we needed that.
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Yeah, he was definitely one of a kind. I see little glimpses or elements of him in some of the other drivers sometimes, but never really the whole package. A lot of people like to make that Earnhardt comparison with some of the drivers today. I have my pick and have made that known on here, but this thread is all about the man himself so I'll just leave it at that.

I've said this before, but had I known then what I know now about him, I probably would have liked him. He seemed like he was a cool dude off the track, but your worst nightmare on it.
 
RIP Earnhardt Sr.

14 years ago today, NASCAR loss it's biggest star and one of it's greatest drivers. 14 years ago today, NASCAR was changed forever.
 
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kymartin6 said:
Okay....... at the expense of of boring you guys to death. I don't know if I've posted my feelings about Big E here or not..... if I have.... just disregard this post.


I was never ever a Big E fan....... I hated him for 4 hours a week. I was always a Mark Martin fan. His driving style on the track pissed me off in the worst way. He could wreck a car by making that left slide move and make it look like he never touched 'em. His attitude was ****y. On a seperate side....... I respected him so much for what he could do with a car those 4 hours and I TOTALLY respected him for what he done the rest of the week. I will never forget that day that he got killed. Never ever did I think in my wildest dreams that I would miss a man as much as I miss him. Racing just hasn't been the same for me.



I sure miss you Dale.......



RIP Ralph Dale Earnhardt...........
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That couldn't have been said any better. Being a Terry Labonte fan, he was on the bottom of my list, but I am in agreement :cheers:
 
For me , the thing that set him apart from other drivers was his ability to diagnose what a car needed . He was the prototype of the modern driver that feeds back the exact info that the crew chief needs to make the car better . I don't think I ever saw him race , that the car wasn't faster at the end than it was at the start . I'm sure I even recall hearing him say , 'that's it , leave it there ,it is good as it can get' , because he knew the car that well .
 
Being a huge Terry Labonte fan, I never forgave Dale for wrecking him and stealing a win away at Bristol in '99...

..until after the Daytona 500 in 2001 when I was devastated by his death. They don't make drivers and men like Dale Earnhardt Sr. anymore. He was truely irreplaceable. The swagger, the mustache, the sunglasses, and the black #3. He was like a super villain you loved to hate, or the icon you wished you could emulate.

NASCAR just isn't as enjoyable without him.
 
Lin said:
I felt that way watching SNL... there are people in their 30s who don't even know who John Belushi was or Gilda Radner. But still.. hard to believe they've been gone almost 33 and 25 years respectively.
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It is hard to believe, Lin, as my fave, Harry Gant, has been retired for over 20 years.
 
Hated the driver but respected the man. RIP to one of the greats.

On a side note...I cheered like crazy when I saw him hit the turn 4 wall that day. If my driver didn't have a good day, it was made up for if Earnhardt had a bad day and/or crashed. When I heard the news that he succumbed to his injuries I felt AWFUL because I felt guilty for being happy that someone had died (although I didn't know it at the time of the crash). Ever since then I have vowed to never cheer for anyone to crash no matter how much I dislike them, and my actions 14 years ago still bother me to this day. Needed to get that off my chest and I sincerely apologize to any Earnhardt fans. It's strange that I now adore a driver who I once despised.
 
Old man E'hardt was just that damn good. If not for the band-wagoners I would have found it easy to support him. My emotions were very mixed that day as the now ex, was good old NC kin and there is never a best thing to say when tradgity occurs out of the blue. He passed doing what he loved and lived for, I really don't believe he'd have had it any other way.
 
kymartin6 said:
As much as I hate to say it...... I really don't think we will ever have another Earnhardt. For some reason that none of us can put a finger on.......... He broke the mold at the very exact time that we needed that.
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For one thing we will never again experiencing MEN coming into racing. These are all boys now that learn the media is your best ally
and you know your sponsors better than your family. Millionaires before the age of 21. The only thing worse are entertainers.
 
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