19 February 2001 // Farewell to The Intimidator
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Dale Earnhardt is dead. I can't believe it. I just can't. I saw the crash that killed him on live tv. I prayed he would be okay, seeing the worry on Darrell Waltrip's face as the rescue crews worked at getting him out of his car... "Those are the ones that hurt, those crashes like that." The ones where the car suddenly turns right up and hits the outside wall of the track, where no amount of roll cage or fireproofing or energy-dissipating things-falling-off or even a helmet or a Hans device can do anything against the split-second deceleration from a hundred and eighty miles per hour. Those are the ones that are the most frightening when you know what's going on. Drivers will walk away from a wreck where they tumbled end-over-end halfway down the track and landed in flames. But right smack into the wall... Adam Petty, Greg Moore, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper, and now The Intimidator himself...
I'm in shock right now. I still can't believe it.
I won't be able to cheer him on to his 8th Winston Cup championship. I won't be able to give my uncle Tom the raspberry when he boos and I cheer as Dale is introduced before the race at PIR. Dad and I won't be able to watch his bold, well, intimidating moves on Sunday afternoons anymore.
He's gone.
The Man in Black. The Intimidator. Or as Dad often calls him, "That son of a... did you see what he just did?!" He won seven Winston Cup championships - tied for the most with King Richard Petty. He won the most races of anyone at Daytona, including one Daytona 500 after 20 years of trying. I think my roommate and I scared the people in the room beneath us in the dorm, watching that race in 1998 and bouncing up and down for joy when he won. :) He's one of my favorite drivers (even when I don't always agree with some of the things he does...) - I'm the official Earnhardt fan of the family. There's even a Dale Earnhardt song, a tune by Alabama called "I'm In a Hurry"... it's one of the few country songs I really like.
It's hard to write about him in past tense. I'm not there yet.
Right now I'm working on my tribute page, dedicated to several talented drivers who were taken from us far too soon. I had been planning to update it along with the rest of my site... I never thought I would be dedicating it to Dale Earnhardt as well.
What is so amazing is that on that last lap, he was doing something some might consider "out-of-character" - he was running third, holding off the guys behind him so that his son Dale Jr., running second, and his good friend Michael Waltrip, in the lead, could win the Daytona 500. You could almost say he sacrificed himself for them. I sincerely hope, though, that that's not how Michael Waltrip feels - what an emotional rollercoaster he must be on, winning his first WC race and losing his dear friend and car owner in the same moment.
Editing this page, doing the graphics and everything... it's just unreal. It's still not sinking in, I still can't believe he's really gone.
To me, it helps to know that he died doing the very thing he loved most. Mom tells me that the emergency room doctors said, essentially, that he died as soon as he hit the wall.
Okay, the page is done and uploaded, and I'm about to cry myself to sleep. The reality of this will probably really hit next week as we watch the race at Rockingham... without Dale in it. Without that black #3 GM Chevy Monte Carlo. When they interview his son and his close friends, who might be able to talk about it by then. Whether you're a fan, like me, or an anti-fan, I don't think there's any doubt that he will be missed.
And in case you haven't checked out my memorial page, please don't miss this: I wrote this poem back in 1994 for Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki, two talented NASCAR drivers who were also taken from us far too early. I extend the dedication to Dale Earnhardt, as well as to Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper, Greg Moore, and Gonzalo Rodriguez. I dearly hope that there will be no need to include any others. Their loss diminishes us all.
Mortal
Who would have thought?
As you circled the Daytona oval
As you went fast, faster,
fastest of all --
Defying all limits of machines
And of your own endurance.
Who would have thought?
As countless times you walked away
From metal and glass, twisted,
burned and destroyed --
And always returned, unshaken,
Unfazed, to race again another day.
Who would have thought?
As you came around Turn Four one last time,
As with arm upraised in triumph
you took the checkered flag --
Beaming in elation from Victory Lane
We all knew you were invincible.
A color, a number, and a trademark design
A face with a weary but ecstatic smile
A legend manifest, captured in time
Who would have thought
you were mortal?
- Elya Arrasmith
For official information, please see Nascar.com.
recent alterations //
21 November 2002 // I'm not dead yet!
03 October 2002 // Snarling bitch to genki fangirl in 0.8 seconds flat! [i]
27 September 2002 // He's got butterfly wings, not feathery angel wings. Geez, people!
25 September 2002 // The Great Oekaki Contest Begins! [ai]
14 September 2002 // The obsessiveness continues...
