Citrus: Fans lament loss at Daytona

Fans lament loss at Daytona

Racing enthusiasts in Citrus come to grips with the death of racing legend Dale Earnhardt.

By PATRICK COOPER

INVERNESS -- Everyone who was watching says the same thing: The crash didn't look that bad.

But in Citrus County and in every NASCAR-loving community around the country Monday, fans have had to deal with the death of racing legend Dale Earnhardt after his fatal crash on the last lap of Sunday's Daytona 500.

"We never thought that he was even hurt," said Herb Neumann Jr., who watched the race with friends from the upper deck of Daytona International Speedway. "I figured he could get right out of it."

Working Monday in his Inverness auto shop, Neumann said he and his friends eventually realized it was worse because of the information at the track that they didn't get, rather than the information they did.

The public address announcer said nothing. "Usually they say if he's okay," Neumann said. The giant video screen was showing just typical post-race interviews. Nothing about Earnhardt.

And then their scanner went silent. They had been monitoring the radio communications of the drivers' crews all day. When the crash occurred, they changed to the channel Earnhardt's crew was using. Nothing. Soon afterward, every channel was silent.

Neumann and his friends thought maybe the battery in the scanner had died. Now he said he believes NASCAR officials jammed the channels so emergency workers could work on Earnhardt without causing a great disturbance.

"It's something you never forget," he said.

Sixteen-year-old Chris Hooker, watching the race on television, had the same bad feeling but still was stunned when the news of the death broke.

"I just thought it was horrible," said Hooker, a junior at Citrus High School.

He got his race car renumbered this year to the number 3. Three like the number of a car he drove when he was younger, 3 like the number of a car his dad used to race, and 3 like the number on the famous black Chevrolet Earnhardt raced.

Hooker's father, Billy, president of the Citrus County Speedway, was out of the house when the news broke. When he came back home, his kids told him and he thought they were joking.

Now, with the opening race of the season at the Speedway on Saturday, he is doing what he can to honor the racer.

A show car replica of Earnhardt's car, which was almost finished even before the past weekend, will be parked in front of the speedway. The builder, Floyd Miner, was adding an "In memory of" above Earnhardt's name on the car Monday.

Hooker said there will be a moment of silence on Saturday, and the Women's Racing Club is making pins to give spectators. Parade laps will begin at 6 p.m. followed by a tribute to Earnhardt about 6:15. The race will begin at 6:30.

"I think it's going to take a long time for people to be over this," he said. "It's just one of those freak accidents."

Neumann said he was afraid NASCAR attendance numbers would drop, losing Earnhardt's large hard-core fan base. "They came to see Dale. If it wasn't for him, a lot of them wouldn't go," he said.

He said he was never one of those people, but that he, like many others, respected the racer for his level of competition and what he had done for the sport.

"I was always the first one to root against Dale," he said. "But, boy, when he's gone, you wish he wasn't."

Neumann said that only Earnhardt's name announced before Daytona could get the entire crowd -- hundreds of thousands of people -- to react.

"Half cheers, half boos," he said. But none silent.

"That was something about Dale. Like him or hate him, everybody was always talking about him."