Goodbye Dale Jr. You Will be Missed.
It just turned dark on the East Coast when NASCAR President stepped up to the microphone at the Media Center at Daytona International Speedway and spoke the words we all dreaded to hear, “We’ve lost Dale Earnhardt.”
There are only a handful of events in most people’s lifetime that you will recall where you were the day of that event. JFK assassination, 9/11 are examples of tragic events that most can recall the exact place they were when those tragedies occurred. Seldom do sports moments melt into your brain, forever etched in your memory. The loss of Dale Earnhardt was one of those.
To this day, you will see as many Dale Earnhardt flags at the race track than any other driver. I remember thinking at the time, how will this sport survive. Imagine what Dale Earnhardt Jr. was thinking as he got out of his race car that day, wondering how his Daddy was doing.
That day was the blackest of any day in any sport at any time. Looking back now at those events and where the sport has gone, we all owe Dale Jr. a debt of gratitude. It almost seems that he picked this sport up by the seat of his fire suit and carried it to where we are today.
Just a few months after losing the sport’s biggest star, Dale Jr. took home the checkered flag at the very same track that took his father’s life just a few short months earlier. Dale Jr. had begun to “heal” us all.
After that race Dale Jr. said, “He (Dale Sr.) was with me tonight. I could feel it.” I think we all could feel it that night.
Dale Jr. was not the sport’s greatest superstar. He didn’t have the victories that Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon or his Daddy had. What he did have was “It”. Few sports personalities have “it”. Few sports personalities are able to translate beyond sports. Mohamad Ali, Michael Jordon and Pele are among the small list of sports stars known worldwide. Dale Jr. is also on that list.
Now some cynical people might say it’s only because of who his Daddy was. To those I say hog wash. Those of us in NASCAR have watched that young man grow up before are very eyes. We’ve watched the struggles with his Step Mom, his endearing relationship with his siblings, his on track successes and defeats. We watched him struggle and bring to the forefront concussions impact on NASCAR’s athletes. We took pleasure in seeing him marry the love of his life, Amy, this past year. All the while we watched him turn into one of the sports classiest people.
For NASCAR fans, Dale Jr. was so much more than a race car driver. He represented all that was good in the sport. Easy to root for? You bet! There will be many tributes, speeches, and tears in the coming days as Dale Jr. makes his final start in the Monster Series Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Most will put words together far better than I could ever do in tribute to his career.
Jeff Gluck might have put it best when Dale Jr. first announced his retirement earlier this season. Gluck wrote at that time, “Dale Jr. is a superstar trapped in a regular dude’s body.”
For me, I’m left wondering how the sport survives without a man named Earnhardt once again.
Thanks for reading. Listen to WTBQ radio on Monday and Friday mornings at 8:45 as I join Frank, Taylor and the Morning Show gang to discuss all the current happenings in NASCAR. 1110AM 93.5FM or online at WTBQ.COM. You can also follow me on twitter @JimLaplante
