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United by Loss

Where Dale Earnhardt worked and lived, fans share mementos and memories.

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2001

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Everybody knew him and loved him.

At least that was the way it seemed after visiting this tiny town at dusk a day after its most famous resident died.

"You get around Dale Earnhardt here at the shop or back on the farm, you're just as likely to see him on a tractor bush-hoggin'," said Lt. Mark McCollum of the Iredell County Sheriff's Department. "I know of times that I've been up here talking to him, there would be people walking in the door wanting to get Dale Earnhardt's autograph and want to know if he's on the premises anywhere.

"They had walked within 15 feet of him and didn't realize he was the guy in the blue jeans and tore-up T-shirt and a ballcap out there in the front yard."

McCollum kept watch Monday as thousands of Earnhardt fans did the only thing they knew might soothe the hurt of Earnhardt's death in a crash on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

They made the pilgrimage from their homes and offices in a steady stream up Iredell Road, the two-lane highway leading to the posh race shop where the late driver housed his three Dale Earnhardt Inc. teams.

The Garage Majal, some call it.

"This is closure," said Greg Faulk of Charlotte. "I still don't believe it, still don't believe it. The guy was invincible. He was like Superman. That man is not supposed to die."

They parked their cars and trucks alongside Iredell Road, walked up to the makeshift memorial along a black wrought-iron fence, disposable cameras, camcorders and gifts in hand.

They said prayers and backed away solemnly.

They hugged and wept, their tears dripping on the trampled grass below.

Then they left, feeling a little better about their favorite driver.

"He was racing to me," Stan Goodson of Lincolnton said. "When I first started into NASCAR it was Earnhardt, and it's been Earnhardt ever since."

Earlier, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seen leaving the shop. Crew members had come out and placed flowers along the fence.

"It was real solemn in there," McCollum said. "They had some things they have to do."

By nighttime, while DEI employees worked behind drawn blinds in an upstairs office, those who came could see Earnhardt's seven Winston Cup championship trophies sparkling in a display case at the shop's entrance and a No. 3 Chevrolet display car parked outside the front doors.

The fence was as close as fans could get.

"One of the best memories that I have of him is when the city of Kannapolis gave his mother a key to the city," said Lisa Hager her town, where Earnhardt was born and raised. "We went to that ceremony and my daughter was on the edge of her seat when he went up to get that. Then, after the ceremony, she went down to meet him.

"She got his autograph on that program. And that just made that child's day."

A wooden cross with a No. 3 printed it was propped against the fence. A paper towel wrapped three white carnations reading, "Farewell to the greatest" and a poster asking, "Are There Any Left Turns On The Way To Heaven?"

Hung against the fence was a life-size sketching of Earnhardt from the waist up in his black and white driver's suit and hat. A couple posed together in the bright light of dozens of TV cameras as a friend took a picture.

One man donated a 16-ounce can of Budweiser along with a note on the back of a gas-station receipt he pulled from his wallet. A group of teenaged girls brought a piece of sheet metal from an old race car after signing it. Two hats sat perfectly atop a Goodyear tire.

Faulk and Goodson brought a yellow piece of posterboard and hung it on the fence.

They had written: "NASCAR act like a real sport and retire the #3."

"They need to retire that 3," Faulk said. "Put it in every track on a wooden sign or something like they do in other sports."

Poems and cards. Lots of them.

And the note on white looseleaf paper decorated in red marker.

D -- Daring

A -- Athletic

L -- Legend

E -- Excel

E -- Eager

A -- Athlete

R -- Racer

N -- Nice

H -- Honorable

A -- Awesome

R -- Remembering

D -- Different

T -- Terrific

S -- Senior

R -- Respected.

Nobody put it better, except McCollum.

Six years ago his daughter, Kaitlen, was born. Two days after her birth, McCollum brought Kaitlen to DEI to show her off to Earnhardt, who then took her for a ride on a track.

"He took her for a ride and then yelled at me for having her out in the sun," McCollum said. "He told me, "Get her home. What's wrong with you boy? Don't you know anything about kids?' I didn't. I never had one before. But that's just the kind of guy he was. He never forgot where he came from.

"I don't think we'll ever get over it. I don't think racing and as a whole, this community, is going to ever actually replace him. He's irreplaceable."

Funeral arrangements for Earnhardt were pending late Monday. Kannapolis plans a memorial service Sunday at A.L. Brown High School.

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