Word: dales
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...years ago, my son asked Dale for permission merely to touch the fabled black machine before the start of a race at Talladega in Alabama. Dale loved the idea for the good luck it might bring him and insisted only that I bring my son to Victory Lane if he won. Cut to Dale holding the kid aloft, my son holding the trophy aloft--the whole giddy, heady scene captured in the photos I'm now left with...
Last week my son kept asking, "Is there any chance he'll just wake up and everything will be O.K.?" That's probably my fault. I may have told him once or twice that Dale Earnhardt would never...
There are moments, though, when it takes more than a nod to acknowledge danger. In February 1994, Neil Bonnett died on a practice run a week before the Daytona 500. Neil was a good friend--and Dale's closest. Dale had qualified fourth that year, but I was in the back of the pack. We talked before the race, and Dale spied my wife Stevie slipping me a card with a note written on it. He asked her about it. She told him that for years before every race, she would write out some biblical verse--whichever she found most...
...Dale didn't ask for much else, though. In fact, love him or hate him, as the patriarch of NASCAR racing he was often the one who provided the good luck, protection or confidence. He enjoyed his on-track persona as the Intimidator, and, yes, he liked to push people to their limits--or to the side of the track, if necessary. All the same, he was the standard-bearer for professional drivers. On the day he died, he spoke his last words to the pit crew, telling them to relay advice to his teammates--my brother...
...knew Dale for 30 years, and saw him grow from an eager but sloppy novice to a consummate success. As his career reached higher and higher plateaus, he became our connection to the past, to the way NASCAR and its drivers used to be. Dale had started out with nothing. In fact, when I met him in 1973, just about the only two things he had in place were his mustache and his ambition. At that time he was racing on dirt tracks in Concord, N.C., looking for a way out or a leg up and often feeling discouraged about...