1998 Daytona 500 - Top Row Seat
Dateline: 02/16/98Finally!
Great athletes in every sport have one defining moment. Dan Janson finally struck Olympic gold in 1994, Jim Leyland finally won the World Series in 1997, John Elway finally won the Super Bowl in 1998, and now Dale Earnhardt has finally won the Daytona 500.
Ernie Irvan really summed it up well: "If you look at the record books, Dale Earnhardt's done everything, except
win the Daytona 500," Irvan said. "Now they can't have that riding over him. Now they're just going to say,
'Dale Earnhardt, 1998 Daytona 500 winner,' and his shoulders are going to get lighter every time."
(John Crowley, NASCAR Online
via The StockCarFans newsletter)
The image of literally every single crew member from every team lined up on pit road to congratulate Dale will always be engraved firmly in my memory as one of the most heartfelt emotional moments in the history of NASCAR. The legend is now complete.
The Actual Race
Beyond the fact that it was a most deserved victory, it was one heck of a great race as well. A number of guys were a major factor in the race. Jeff Gordon was running third in the mad scramble with just a few laps to go when his car dropped a cylinder. Gordon finished 16th. Last year's Championship contenders Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett both had trouble in the pits. Martin lost the transmission and finished 38th. Jarrett drove into the side of Geoff Bodine (Sorry Dale but it really was your fault) and put himself out of serious contention. Jarrett ended up in 34th spot.
For every driver who didn't run up front there is one who surprised by being in contention. The new team of Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield had a real shot at the win but inexperience caused them to get separated and they fell back. If Rusty Wallace had been in front with Jeremy glued to his bumper then things might have been different.
And finally, congratulations to Kenny Schrader for bringing it home in 4th place. After the crushing blow he took during the 125 Mile Qualifier he had to be extremely sore. To go out and drive 500 miles in a hot vibrating race car while in pain with the threat of serious injury is either the definition of dedication or the definition of ignorance. Now if someone could expalin to me why he was wearing a Kenny Wallace T-shirt....
Up Next
Now that the "Super Bowl Of NASCAR" is over it's time for the teams to get down to the grueling task of trying to be competitive every week so as to contend for the 1998 Winston Cup Championship.
The first race of the rest of the season is the GM Goodwrench Service Plus 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, NC. Last year Jeff Gordon continued his early season domination and won his second in a row. The race can be seen on TNN live at 12:30pm EST.
Agree? Disagree? Want to throw hot spark plugs at me? I'm available in the chat room every Wednesday night at 8pm Eastern to answer questions and defend my opinion.
