THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 17, 1997 TAG: 9702170172
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: 77 lines
It was the same old story with a different twist for Dale Earnhardt on Sunday.
For the 19th time, he came up short in the Daytona 500.
His fate Sunday was another ride on his roof. But unlike his crash last year at Talladega, he walked away unhurt - and then provided some of the best drama of the day by crawling back into his seemingly demolished car and driving back to the pits for repairs.
And then he finished the race.
``Well, I just wanted to get back in the race and try to make some laps,'' he said. ``We're running for the championship. Our hopes for the Daytona 500 were over.''
It was dramatic stuff, but not what Earnhardt and his team wanted. More often than not, however, that been his fate at the Daytona 500 in the 1990s.
In 1991, Ernie Irvan passed him with seven laps to go.
In 1993, Dale Jarrett took him with one lap to go.
In 1995, Sterling Marlin went by him with 20 to go.
And last year, Jarrett got him again, this time with 24 laps to go.
Each of those times, Earnhardt was leading. He wasn't leading Sunday when his car pushed into the outside wall coming off turn 2. He was in second. But it was the same problem: The handling on his Chevy faded down the stretch.
This time, it probably could be blamed on the fact that Earnhardt took two tires, and not four, on his final pit stop on lap 166 to maintain his track position.
And so it was another walk back to the garage, this year with an ever more frantic mob of photographers, reporters and television camera teams dogging him every step of the way.
``You all better watch out!'' Earnhardt shouted, crowded as closely as he had been on the track all afternoon.
When he reached his transporter, Earnhardt pulled a cooler toward him and hopped on top of it to rise above the crowd. He winked at his wife. And then everyone stood quietly for about two minutes, waiting for CBS-TV to return from a commercial break.
``Is it a Busch beer commercial? I need one,'' Earnhardt said before explaining his latest fate in the race he's never won.
``(Jeff) Gordon came up under me and the car pushed off the corner and I got into the wall and I got back into him,'' Earnhardt said of his crash on lap 189. ``I checked up a little bit and somebody hit me from behind. The next thing I know, we're on our roof again.
``Luckily, no one else hit the car. We just sort of bounced around up on our head a little bit. We spun around and tore the back end up and whatever.''
As Earnhardt spun to a stop, crew chief Larry McReynolds was on the radio, checking to make sure Earnhardt was OK. He said yes. Earnhardt then got out of the car and walked to an ambulance.
``I got in the ambulance and I looked back at the car and I said, `Man, the wheels is still on that thing.' I got out of the ambulance and asked the guy inside the car who was hooking it up, I said, `See if it will crank.' ''
``And he cranked it up. I said, `Get out of there. Give me my car back.' So I drove it back around here and we taped it up.
``I don't know that we could have won the Daytona 500, but I was sitting there waiting for a shot. I think Gordon was a little impatient at that point, but still he went on ahead and won the race. But that's the way it goes.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dale Earnhardt's pit crew tapes the pieces of his car down after his
crash.
ABOVE: Dale Earnhardt's Chevrolet flips onto its roof during a
multi-car crash on lap 189. The wreck also knocked Ernie Irvan,
center, and Dale Jarrett, right, who were in the top five, from
contention. Two spectators were injured moments later when
Earnhardt's car bounced over Irvan's, shearing off Irvan's hood and
sending it into the grandstands.
Photo
RIGHT: Dale Earnhardt wipes the grime from his face while checking
the damage done to his car after the race.