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Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway, Richard Childress Racing, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, NASCAR

The Richard Childress Racing teams and Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines will pay tribute to the late seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt throughout Daytona Speedweeks.

All of the Richard Childress Racing cars, transporters and pit boxes will have No. 3 decals. Team members will wear a special RCR No. 3 hat on February 18, which marks 10 years since Earnhardt -- driver of the No. 3 Goodwrench Chevy -- was killed on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines employees will wear a special ECR No. 3 hat for the duration of NASCAR Speedweeks, which begins with Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout 75-lap exhibition race and concludes with the Feb. 20 season-opening Daytona 500.

Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines is a joint venture launched in 2007 by Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc., the race team started by Earnhardt and his wife, Teresa, in 1980.

"All of us at RCR and ECR are honored to pay tribute to Dale on this 10th anniversary," said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing and Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines. "His legacy is still felt every day at RCR, ECR and throughout the world. We hope all of Dale's fans appreciate this salute to their hero and ours."

A tribute No. 3 decal has been on the No.. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick ever since Earnhardt's tragic death. The team changed the car number from 3 to 29 out of respect for the legend and it has never been on a car in the Cup series since.

 

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Filed under: Jamie McMurray, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As Jamie McMurray sat behind the microphone in his Daytona 500 victory press conference, hands clinched around his face, head bowed, tears rolling down his eyes, too emotional to speak -- the enormity of his accomplishment set in. For him and for us.

The hundred or so journalists typing away on deadline suddenly became quiet, almost reverently watching McMurray in the several minutes it took for him to regain his composure and continue taking questions.

He was so honestly and deeply wrapped up in the moment. His moment.

It was a nice reminder of what it means to feel such genuine happiness. And for the 33-year old Missouri native McMurray, there was also a bit of relief and a healthy dose of redemption.

"To be honest, I was thinking, 'you need to stop crying and answer the questions ... but you know, the harder you try, the worse it gets,'' McMurray explained Tuesday with a laugh.

 

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Filed under: Jamie McMurray, Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR Tracks

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Daytona 500 had one heckuva finish -- Jamie McMurray holding off NASCAR's favorite son Dale Earnhardt Jr. in double overtime; team owner Chip Ganassi joining Roger Penske as the only two men to field Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 winning cars; a record number of race leaders; and a near-record number of lead changes.

It was everything NASCAR could ask of its season-opener at Daytona International Speedway ... except for a pesky pothole located between turns 1 and 2 that stands to cast a shadow on the spotlight the 33-year-old McMurray deserves to own all his own.

So often we hear of race car drivers battling the track. Perhaps not so literally.

NASCAR's biggest race of the year was halted for two and a half hours for two lengthy repairs to the track surface -- a super gaffe in the sanctioning body's self-proclaimed Super Bowl.

 

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Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Sprint Cup, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Clint Bowyer predicted that a nearly two-hour red flag period in the middle of the Daytona 500 was merely the calm before the storm.

He wasn't kidding.

When the racing finally resumed for good Jamie McMurray, 33, of Joplin, Mo., held off a last lap charge by Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Daytona 500 in double overtime -- a race that may be remembered as much for a pothole between turns 1 and 2 as the exciting finish.

For the fans who patiently endured more than two hours of total red flag race stoppage at Daytona International Speedway while officials twice repaired a pot hole in the track, the ending was a prime reward. It was the first test of NASCAR's new policy of green-white-checkered finishes, allowing for up to three overtime periods.

McMurray led only the final two laps in the No. 1 Bass Pro Shop Chevrolet -- the fewest number of laps led by a Daytona 500 winner in the 52-year history of the race. And his team co-owner Chip Ganassi now joins Roger Penske as owners with wins in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.

 

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Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Daytona 500 has been stopped for a second time while workers inspect and repair another pothole in the racing line of Daytona International Speedway.

With 39 laps to go in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season opener, the field -- led by Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle -- was parked on pit road. NASCAR had already stopped the race for an hour and 42 minutes on Lap 123 while repairs were being made to a small six-inch hole in the track surface located between turns one and two of the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Driver Robby Gordon first reported the patch was coming up with about 50 laps to go, telling his crew on the radio, "There's going to be a big wreck, I'm telling you.''

NASCAR sent workers out to try another patch as the sun started setting in Daytona Beach and hundreds of fans started exiting the grandstands.

"With the combination of moisture and cold temperatures, the normal solutions you normally use to patch the track are not working, but we're turning the corner and we're on our third different solution now,'' NASCAR Chairman Brian France said during the initial red flag period.

"The good news is we will get it solved. We're in the midst of probably one of the best Daytona 500s in many years. We want to get it right. The key is safety," he said.

 

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Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway, Sprint Cup

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- With new rules increasing horsepower, loosening oversight and adding up to three overtime periods, NASCAR drivers are more hesitant than usual to make any predictions about Sunday's 52nd running of the Daytona 500.

"I'll be honest, I really don't know what to expect,'' driver-owner Tony Stewart said Saturday after his win in the Nationwide Series race.

"I mean, I assume it's going to be something similar to the qualifying races. But, you know, with having the full field, obviously you're gonna have a lot more good quality cars that are right."

Stewart's win Saturday gives him 15 at NASCAR's most famous track, Daytona International Speedway -- only Dale Earnhardt (34) and Bobby Allison (16) have more victories.

"There's one I haven't won, and that's the Sunday show,'' said Stewart, who will start sixth in his No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet.

"So, you know, I would trade a couple of races, I'd let anybody pick which ones they want to trade out, I'd trade any one of 'em for a Sunday race for sure.''

 

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Filed under: Michael Waltrip, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Chase for the Sprint Cup

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- He was in. He was out. He was in. He was out. ...He's in.

That was the emotional final lap-by-lap drama for Michael Waltrip during Thursday's second qualifying race for the Daytona 500. Waltrip, a two-time 500 winner, will make his final Daytona 500 start Sunday -- thanks largely to the effort of another driver.

"Why did it have to be like that?" a teary-eyed Waltrip said after watching the final laps of Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150 with a television camera capturing his every reaction.

Having crashed out of the first 150-lapper, Waltrip's fate rested in the other Duel with two other drivers, Scott Speed and Bobby Labonte, who needed to finish either first or second among the drivers not already locked into the field. Both were among four drivers on the final lap fighting for the two positions. And Speed took the second spot a few hundred yards from the finish line.

"Scott and I are friends and I love him, I don't care what he does to his toenails,'' a visibly relieved Waltrip said, joking about the eccentric former Formula One driver's fondness for outlandish pedicures.

 

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Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Chevrolet, Daytona Int'l Speedway

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It's too early to be too excited Junior Nation, but a front row starting spot in the Daytona 500 could go a long way toward setting Dale Earnhardt Jr. back on the right course.

He'll start alongside his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin, who on Saturday won the pole position for the Feb. 14 Daytona 500. Martin's No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet turned a lap of 191.188 mph around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway -- just edging Earnhardt's lap of 190.913 mph in the No. 88 Amp Energy Chevrolet.

Martin's lap is the fastest since Jeff Gordon posted a 195.067 mph speed in winning the 1999 Daytona 500 pole. Twelve drivers topped the 190-mph mark. Dale Jarrett's 2000 pole-winning speed was the last time any driver had gone 190 mph in qualifying.

 

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Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway

Over the next two weeks, FanHouse will be covering the top sports stories of the decade. In our first installment, Holly Cain looks back at the 2001 Daytona 500 and the impact that losing Dale Earnhardt had on NASCAR.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Initially it looked like a routine last lap crash in the Daytona 500. Nothing spectacular. Dale Earnhardt had a resume full of last-lap disappointments in this great race.

So on Sunday, February 18, 2001, most of us sitting in the press box high above Daytona International Speedway fully expected the indomitable, rascally Earnhardt to once again climb out of his wrecked race car, wave to the crowd, and argue with the track workers about an ambulance ride to the care center, insisting instead on heading directly to victory circle to congratulate his longtime friend Michael Waltrip for scoring the first win of his career and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a chip-off-the-ol-block, runner-up effort.

Earnhardt's inevitable anger that he crashed would be supplanted by pride for his team, we figured.

Earnhardt's fatal crash into the Turn 4 wall late that afternoon proved to be anything but routine and, in fact, changed absolutely everything routine about the sport.

The 2001 Daytona 500 is FanHouse's pick as Motorsports Story and Race of the Decade.

 

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Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway

Over the next two weeks, FanHouse will be covering the top sports stories of the decade. In this installment, Holly Cain gives a first-person take on the moments surrounding Dale Earnhardt's untimely death at the 2001 Daytona 500.

I vividly remember the sickening feeling when I first realized that Dale Earnhardt might be seriously injured.

Using binoculars from a seat in the Daytona International Speedway press box -- seven stories above the famous track's finish line -- I watched driver Ken Schrader climb frantically from his car and run a few feet over to Earnhardt's Chevy. It was the final lap of the Daytona 500 and the cars had collided and hit the Turn 4 wall before coming to rest on the infield grass.

Schrader's urgent gestures to the safety crew and then his body language -- turning away from the wreckage -- was unusual for the normally controlled veteran.

Once the rescue workers arrived at Earnhardt's famous black No. 3 and assessed the situation, it felt everyone was moving too slowly. The ambulance -- headed to the hospital just across the street -- left the scene -- and wasn't rushed. The wrecker was in no hurry.

Then, the telltale sign: track workers unrolled a large tarp. After a decade of covering the sport, I knew the tarp was used to cover and cloak race cars in fatal accidents.

I will never forget watching a then 26-year old Dale Earnhardt Jr. running down pit lane towards his dad's car a good half-mile away.

 

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