Tag Archives: Dale Earnhardt

NASCAR Holds Mandatory Meeting for Cup Drivers, Owners On Tuesday, NASCAR held a mandatory meeting for all Sprint Cup drivers and owners at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, NC. The summit was designed to be an open forum for drivers and owners to ask questions of NASCAR …

No. 91 Nationwide Team Penalized For Darlington Infraction NASCAR announced on Thursday that Michael Allen, crew chief for the MSRP Motorsports No. 91 driven by Terry Cook, has been fined for rule violations in last Friday’s race at Darlington Raceway. Allen was found in violation of Section 12-1 (actions detrimental …

Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby announced this week that there won’t be any changes in the plate racing, espousing the excitement of Daytona and Talladega just days after two drivers had near-death experiences. Too many writers agree. Quite a few have said that Talladega was a great race and NASCAR shouldn’t do a thing to change it. Some have said that all of the safety precautions worked. Not quite. Seven fans were injured. If that isn’t a wake up call, it damn well oughta be. If a car goes into the grandstand and kills 50 fans, NASCAR is over, my friends. There will not be another race. Believe it. Darby also said, presumably with a straight face, that people play up the danger of wrecks at plate tracks as opposed to wrecks at Atlanta or Charlotte. So Daytona and Talladega are two of the most exciting tracks on the circuit because of the danger, but they aren’t any more dangerous than Atlanta or Charlotte. I’ll figure that one out and get back to you.

As you may have noticed, much of the action that many have become accustomed to in NASCAR has been absent over the last few weeks. Matt Kenseth winning back-to-back races was nice, and it surely did many good to see Mark Martin back in Victory Lane. For the most part, however, this has been a lackluster season, with little to rally around or get up in arms about. Enter Talladega.

*The Key Moment:* Mark Martin was able to quickly dispatch Ryan Newman on the race's final restart, and Tony Stewart never generated the steam to catch him. *In a Nutshell:* Martin’s victory is a feel good story, but it doesn’t hide the fact Phoenix wasn’t much of a race. *Dramatic Moment:* With passing so hard and track position so important, the first few laps after a restart are about all we have left in this sport that resembles real racing. The pyrotechnics in the air weren’t the only fireworks after the race.

It’s a question us journalists hear all the time – especially after the three-week swing of racing at Fontana, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. If I had to count up all the random emails in my inbox from fans this month, hidden somewhere in between “Why don’t you treat Junior more fairly” and “you suck because of A, B, and C” is a basic complaint about NASCAR’s “cookie cutter” racing facilities, ending with, “Why can’t the sport build more tracks like the one they have in Bristol?” I hear you, guys … I hear you loud and clear.

“I just hope Dale’s okay.” Three weeks earlier, Darrell Waltrip’s words in FOX’s first broadcast of the Daytona 500 had become unintentionally immortalized, spoken in concern after the Goodwrench No. 3 Chevrolet came to rest peacefully on the infield grass, in a vision that would be burned in the minds of NASCAR fans forever. To say that Dale Earnhardt’s untimely death struck the motorsports world like a sledgehammer blow to the head would be an understatement. NASCAR Nation was badly shaken in the wake of the Intimidator’s passing. Despite Dale’s departure from this earth in a way that one could have seen happening—the proverbial “he died doing what he loved”—it still put us all into a state of incredulous shock. It seemed so _wrong_. Earnhardt was happier than he had ever been, looking forward to another season of racing. He was supposed to retire comfortably, run his new team until reaching a ripe old age, and see his son follow in his footsteps. It wasn’t supposed to be over so suddenly before his 50th birthday.

Girl Who Gave Earnhardt “Lucky Penny” To Appear At Bristol NASCAR announced on Thursday that Wessa Miller, the girl who gave Dale Earnhardt, Sr. a “lucky penny” that he carried with him as he won the 1998 Daytona 500, will be attending the upcoming Bristol Motor Speedway race with her …

_Welcome to my nightmare_ _I think you're gonna like it_ _I think you're gonna feel... you belong_ - Alice Cooper I’ve long been ridiculed as a prophet of doom. I’ve been saying since Brian France took over as CEO of NASCAR that this sport’s best days are behind it and the end is nigh. I’ve put forth the proposition that the “realignment” of the schedule, the Chase and the Car of Tomorrow have been the three heralds of NASCAR’s impending apocalypse.

OK, now relax. I’m confident that the pseudonym “Man In Black” won’t stick to the four-time Winston Cup champion. When people hear “The Man In Black”, of course, they think of one or both of two men—Johnny Cash, iconic country singer and wearer of ubiquitous black leather outfits, or Dale Earnhardt, iconic driver of the black racecar with the trademark white number 3 on the side. Both are no longer with us and the world is lesser for it. Cash and Earnhardt both relished the “man in black” role. Dark clothing or a dark car. Black like the night. In Johnny Cash’s case, black like much of his life, even if much of the blackness was self-inflicted by his own admission. In Earnhardt’s case, black like Darth Vader—and to be feared just as much on the racetrack.