As the Daytona 500 closed into the final 25 laps, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had put himself in position to win the sport’s greatest race and take home the biggest victory of them all.
The things all changed when a caution flew with 17 laps to go. It was under that caution that his Daytona 500 winning chances start to soak in.
“I’m enjoying particular pieces of it,” Dale Jr. said over the radio. “But the entire experinece is driving me crazy. It’s hard to be excited, a little nervous; this is for the big prize.”
Earnhardt said that feelings he was experiencing at the time were ones that a driver always feels in that position.
“When you’re close enough to the front to win races, there’s a lot on the line, it’s a big race, and you want to win it so badly, your team wants to win it so badly,” Earnhardt said after the race. “You realize at that moment, especially inside of 20 laps to go, you’re in the top five, you realize at that moment there’s countless people watching on television, there’s countless sitting in the grandstands with your shirts and hats on, your team over on pit wall, your crew chief, your family back home watching. There’s so many people pulling for you that want to see you win, it’s a heavy weight.”
Earnhardt Jr. was once again able to grab he lead on the restart and led all the way till the incident with seven laps to go. Under that caution as the field was getting ready to restart, a piece of bare bond (black tape) flew up from the track surface and stuck to the front grill of Earnhardt’s car. Earnhardt Jr. tried to use the pacecar to get it off, but wasn’t able to.
“I’m sorry,” Earnhardt Jr. said over the radio as the team talked about. Crew chief Steve LeTarte, quickly changed the tone, saying, “Don’t be sorry. Just stay in it. It’s okay bud. We’re going to make it.”
The field would take the green flag for a green-white-checkered and Earnhardt Jr. would get the run on the inside due to a push from teammate Jeff Gordon. He would then hold off the challenge from Denny Hamlin for the win as the caution waved for a wreck behind them.
As soon as he crossed the finish line, the excitement was evident with Earnhardt Jr. and the entire No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet team as screams erupted from everyone. The win means a lot for Earnhardt Jr. as he wanted to deliver crew chief Steve LeTarte a Daytona 500 victory as LeTarte moves off the pit box and into the broadcast booth in 2015.
“Hell, yeah,” Earnhardt beamed on the radio. “I’m gonna burn this @#$%! down. What a day, what a day, can you believe this Steve?”
“I love you, man. I love you,” Steve LeTarte replied.
In the media center post-race, Earnhardt Jr. says the emotion that he spread in victory lane simply comes from this being the greatest feeling that a NASCAR driver can experience in a single event.
“Just trying to explain what that feeling is to people, I’ve been trying to tell people for 10 years what that felt like,” Earnhardt Jr. said, referring back to his first Daytona 500 win in 2004. “It’s just hard to put it into words what winning this race really means you.”
Earnhardt Jr. said that the first Daytona 500 win back in 2004 felt special due to working with his uncle Tony Eury Sr. as the crew chief, as well as his cousin Tony Eury Jr. and uncle Danny Earnhardt on the team.
This year’s win feels special due to the guys that Steve LeTarte has assembled on the team.
“He’s put an amazing team around me that we all really enjoy working together,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “And Rick (Hendrick)’s here to make all that possible. It just seems like it’s too good to be true really.
Earnhardt said that he knew that the win was possible due to simply how strong the racecar was.
“I didn’t know it was as good as it was till tonight,” Earnhardt commented. “But in practice, a couple times throughout the weekend, I noticed it was something unique. When we got the opportunities to sort of work our way into the lead, hold it, I was able to fight guys off, like you were saying, hold the lead, hold the lead, keep moving line to line.”
Earnhardt said combining that with lessons that he had picked up in how to hold off the charge were what led him to victory lane.
Over the past couple of years, Earnhardt Jr., LeTarte and the entire team have bonded closer together, and in the process, got stronger on track as well.
“This group is unique and special,” Earnhardt commented. “That’s what makes winning this race that much more special. Obviously it’s the biggest race and most important race we run. But the people you do it with is really the icing on the cake. We really all are best friends, enjoy working with each other. We pull for each other. Lucky enough to have Amy with me, my sister Kelley, LW, my staff, Mike Hoag, Laura that helps with HMS. All those people we grind every week throughout the season. When you got great people around you, it just makes that whole experience so much more special.”
Last year, they finished off the year with a solid second place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway to finish fifth in the points standings.
“We were standing there tearing apart racecars, talking about how great the season was,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “A lot of these guys, like Jason Burdett has been in this sport for a long time, he’s my car chief, said that’s the most fun he’s ever had in a season in the sport ever. That was the biggest compliment. I took it personally as a compliment. I know he meant he was really enjoying himself.”
Now this year with the new Chase format, Earnhardt has virtually already locked himself into the Chase and says that this is just the start of what is to come. Earnhardt compared it to when he used to go go-karting.
“You know, when you’re a kid, especially when you’re growing up around racing, me and all my buddies would go to pay to ride the go-kart ride, whatever racetrack we were at. Every racetrack, Talladega, every place would have them. We’d get a hundred bucks from daddy and go ride the go-karts till the wheels fell off, till we ran out of money,” he said. “On that last ride, you let it all hang out. You didn’t care if you got kicked off. If you didn’t get kicked off, something was wrong, on the last ride. This is Steve’s last ride. He’s going to let the rough side drag all year. He’s got a little racing left in him, I think he’s going to try to get it all out. That’s good for me. I’m fortunate to be on the ride with him.”
