NASCAR WCUP: Earnhardt Jr. Dominates Daytona Pepsi 400
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
July 6, 2001
Dale Jr. Wins, Leads 116 of 160 Laps for Emotional Victory
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Budweiser No. 8 team grabbed an emotional victory Saturday night in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Dale Jr. dominated nearly the entire race, leading 116 of the 160 laps. Emotions had run high all weekend at the track where his legendary father was tragically killed in February, but Dale Jr. and the team were able to put emotion to the side until after the checkered flag. After the victory, Dale Jr. spun the red-and-white Bud car, a special paint scheme to commemorate the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, through the infield grass, then climbed on top of the car, raising his arms in triumph in front of a crowd of more than 170,000 spectators. He was soon joined there by his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Michael Waltrip, who finished second. It is Earnhardt's first win of the season, and the third Winston Cup victory of his career.
The Key Moment: Even though Dale Jr. was only able to qualify 13th Friday afternoon, he was clearly the fastest and best-handling car during the evening’s final practice session. The team and the driver were quietly confident that they had the car to beat in the race. When the race began, Dale Jr. took it easy for the first ten laps, dropping as far back as 31st position on lap 7. After that, he moved through the field to take the lead on 27. After that, he was clearly the fastest car, but was the victim of a yellow flag that flew on lap 142. When the No. 8 team made their third sparkling pit stop of the night, six cars that did not pit were ahead of the Bud car when the final green flag fell with six laps to go. It took him only two laps to pass the five cars ahead of him, and he led the final laps with his teammate Michael Waltrip on his rear bumper, helping to push him to victory. Dale Jr. had helped Waltrip in almost the exact same manner when they finished first and second in the tragic Daytona 500 in February.
Dale Jr’s Quotes: “I wanna dedicate this one to my dad. This one is for him. I wish I could have seen the look on Teresa’s (Earnhardt’s widow) face. This is for her too. We all stuck together and we’re getting through the rough time together as a team – Tony (Eury) my crew chief, Tony (Eury) Jr., Ty Norris and everybody at DEI... This is great! Unbelieveable! I love coming to Daytona, and to win here it… it just means a lot.”
“Yeah, I thought about my dad, but I tried to keep my mind clear all weekend. I think the first lap or two of practice, it felt different, it felt very strange. That was really tough for me, but after that the car was so good that I was able to concentrate and just do what I am paid to do.”
“We were just faster than everybody else. It was all car – 100% car tonight. I could go anywhere I wanted and it seemed like everybody tried to make a run at us or gang up on us and I could put the car anywhere I needed to go. What an awesome car! I could pull away from the guys behind me, but if you got too far out in the lead, they could really get a run on you in the draft.”
“I was so happy to see Michael (Waltrip) behind me. I knew he was gonna help me. I helped him – I committed to him – at the 500, and I TOLD him that I helped him! (laughs) So,I knew he was right behind me supporting me tonight and he did. He was so happy when we were jumping on the cars. He’s had a rough year, so I was happy for him as well. ”
(Taking a deep breathe after climbing into a van to be taken to the media center after a long and emotional victory lane celebration.) “Whoa. This is HUGE!”
(Looking down from the media center onto the skid marks where he had done donuts in the grass after the win)
“I’m looking at those marks, and they don’t look very good from here. I hope they looked better to you guys when I was doin’ them. When Matt Kenseth won at Charlotte last year, he did some sort of high-speed slide though the grass, so I was kinda going for that, mixed with some donuts. You HAVE to do stuff like that after you win because you’ve got so much energy that you have to let it out. You gotta let it out like that by spinning around and jumping out of the car and letting out some yells! Otherwise, if you don’t, you get to victory lane and you’ll just get outta the car and fall over or lose consciousness.”
“The big tire marks on the right side of the car are from Matt! He came up beside me after the race and bumped me, but we touched wheels and we both were kinda thrown up in the air. That was wild!”
Comment from Dale Jarrett, who came to see Dale Jr. in victory lane: “That reminded me of someone else I used to know…”
Text provided by Jade Gurss
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