If the last post was going to be my most personal post, this will be my most passionate. In the modern day, the sport of NASCAR is dying, rightfully so, its repetitive and they have changed the format in a way that has alienated their core audience while not bringing in as many eyes as they would like. Modern racing stars like Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, or Joey Legano are not household names anywhere but the deep south.

You know who is a household name? The one man most people think of when they think NASCAR? Dale Earnheardt. The Intimidator, the man who revolutionized racing for generations of drivers and fans.

If there is one race that the average person thinks of when they think of NASCAR, it’s the Daytona 500. These two legends will not get along, and at the end of this story on Feb 18th, 2001 Dale Earnheardt will die watching his greatest accomplishments right in front of him at the Daytona 500.

I tell you the ending first because it defined his story, even before most people knew his name, Dale knew he might die in a racecar. His dad sure did, Ralph Earnheardt, his father made his living driving a NASCAR before it was called that. Ralph didn’t want Dale in the car, he wanted him to have a cushy desk job in a big city somewhere, but that couldn’t have happened. Dale first drove a NASCAR at the old age of 12, when he secretly raced for his father and nearly won.

Dale was arguably the best to ever drive a NASCAR and to tell you about every success he ever had would be insane and arguably impossible to do in 500 words, so I won’t. Instead I will tell you the 3 most important things about Dale.

1. He drove the black number 3, this is the car he used for 20 years to terrorize any track he drove on, Dale was two things in that black number 3, he was fast and he was mean. If he couldn’t outdrive a car, which was a rare occurrence, he would put the car in front of him into the wall at 200 mph and drive off without so much as a scratch on his car.
2. He owned his own team, this is something that only the most successful driver can do. Being able to own your own team means you can make money from the sport you love if you are fast, and it means burning 100,000s of thousands of dollars a year if you are slow. He was not only able to field 1 car but 2. This meant he could make even more decisions about races and it also meant..
3. He gave his son and his best friend Michael Waltrip the two race seats his team had while he continued to race under the team he had been with for almost the entirety of his racing career.

I lied, I have a fourth thing to tell you. On February 18th, 2001 Dale Earnhardt crashed into the wall on the final turn of the final lap of the Daytona 500. He was in 3rd and he was defending the lead of Michael Waltrip in first and Dale Earnheardt Jr. in second.

Dale wasn’t just a driver, he was a symbol for a part of the world that died giving cheap labor to big factories owned by even larger corporations in forgotten towns. Dale Earnhardt was number 3 and I hope you get a little bit of what he meant to the world.