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No. 8 car wins Cal Ripken Jr. 400, raising $80,000 for terrorist attack relief fund.
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 24, 2001
DOVER, Del. -- For some reason, when NASCAR or its fans need a lift, it seems to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. who provides it.
Fighting his own emotions, fighting back thoughts of life's parallels, the son of the late Dale Earnhardt dominated the start and the finish of the Cal Ripken Jr. 400 Sunday.
It was only two months ago, when the Winston Cup series returned to Daytona International Speedway after the death of Earnhardt Jr.'s father during the Daytona 500, that he dominated the Pepsi 400 and celebrated with nearly 170,000 fans in need of some joy.
Sunday, less than two weeks after terrorist attacks left more than 6,000 presumed dead, it again was Earnhardt Jr. who took charge on an emotional afternoon, when the Winston Cup series went back to work at Dover Downs International Speedway.
He led 193 of 400 laps, and by donating $100 per lap gave $40,000 to aid a relief fund for victims of the attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. He also had several pit stops under 14 seconds, which through another commitment raised his total donation to about $80,000.
Earnhardt, driving his No. 8 Chevrolet -- the same number Ripken has worn throughout his record-setting career with the Baltimore Orioles -- beat Jerry Nadeau's Chevy to the finish line by 1.578 seconds for his second win of the season, setting off a huge celebration of flag-waving around the racetrack.
While on his cool-down lap, Earnhardt called his pit crew on the two-way radio and asked them to get him the big American flag he'd had earlier in the day.
He drove down pit road, picked up the flag, then drove back onto the track with a hard right turn and, with the flag billowing out the side of his window, drove a reverse victory lap around the 1-mile oval.
"You do a lot of things," he said. "You hear a lot of things. We won that race in Daytona -- and I'm still bitter about the insinuations that we didn't win it legal. It was the biggest win in my career. I do think the fans believe.
"But today, I'm really, really fortunate to be the guy. I'm glad we can perform under these circumstances. But no matter who would have won today, it would have been healing enough. It would have been the same emotion, the same support from the fans."
Earnhardt dominated early, then Ricky Rudd, who finished third, dominated through the middle miles as Earnhardt's team sorted out its driver's handling problems on the track.
Rudd came into Sunday's race 222 behind points leader Jeff Gordon. If he could make up just 23 points a race over the last 10 races, he could outdistance Gordon and win his first Winston Cup championship.
Rudd was leading with 56 laps to go when Rusty Wallace bumped his car and sent him spinning coming out of the fourth turn. It would have irked Rudd on any day, but on this day it was particularly hard to take. At the time, Rudd had a large lead, was in control of the race and Gordon, who avoided four accidents right in front of him, was running fifth.
At the end of the day, Rudd gained just 10 points to close to 212. If the race had finished as it was running before Rudd spun, it would have meant an additional 15 points.
The 26-year-old Earnhardt dominated the first half of the race, but lost seven positions with a slow pit stop on Lap 269. He got a break when Wallace hit Rudd.
"He got a fender on us and took the race away from us," Rudd said.
Earnhardt came out of the pits in third on Lap 347, passed Nadeau and took the lead when he blew by Dale Jarrett on the high-banked third turn on Lap 362.
The crowd rose to its feet screaming with delight, and Earnhardt didn't disappoint, withstanding a final caution that bunched the field when Jarrett spun on Lap 388.
But Earnhardt pulled away and won for the fourth time in his career.
Gordon, who won at Dover in June, finished fourth behind Rudd. Gordon was satisfied with the finish that left him 212 ahead of Rudd.
"It felt like I ran 500 laps," Gordon said. "I knocked in a couple of fenders, but it was great to get up there in the top five."
Defending champion Tony Stewart was fifth in a Pontiac.
In a world changed by the attacks of Sept. 11, new racetrack rituals, likely to persist, were introduced. Fans were searched entering the grandstands -- and those seeking admittance to the garage and infield, where fuel is stored and NASCAR's stars spend the weekend, encountered unusual scrutiny of credentials. Security details were not disclosed, but police officers were present in great numbers.
Absences also spoke to the new era: officials banned coolers, a NASCAR tradition since the first races in the late 1940s, and with air traffic near the speedway severely restricted, spectators saw no blimps, no airplanes towing banners and no flyover by military jets before the race.