The Intimidator

In what is turning out to be a NASCAR filled weekend, I wanted to write a post about Dale Earnhardt. I never liked Dale Earnhardt. Watching him growing up it seemed like he was a jerk and he was a bully. Hearing about him 10 years later, he was exactly that...but I've come to the realization that wasn't a bad thing.

For those of you who don't know, yesterday marked the 10 year anniversary of Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt was in 3rd place trailing only behind his son in 2nd and his teammate in 1st. Rather than being aggressive on the track (as he always was) and trying to beat his son and his teammate, Earnhardt spent the last 10 laps of the race blocking everyone else from his position in 3rd to give them an opportunity to go for the win. Winning the race wasn't important to him, but being a part of the success of his teammates was, which should be commended.

I don't really have too many of those 'I remember where I was when ____ happened' moments. September 11th, 2001 is one - Mrs. Cohen's 2nd period English class. February 18, 2001, the day Earnhardt died, surprisingly is another one. I was with my family in the airport heading down to Florida for February vacation. I had watched the beginning of the race at home then we left to drive to JFK or LaGuardia for our flight. Upon arriving at the gate, the first thing I needed to do was find a tv to get the results (Gordon crashed and finished 30th). It's kind of weird that I remember that much detail about the day and the event.

In the years following Earnhardt's death NASCAR made drastic improvements to track and driver safety (evidenced by this crash in 2009 in which nobody was hurt).

You can say Earnhardt was a jerk and a bully, but that's just who he was on the track. If you're not trying to be the best at what you do, then you shouldn't be doing it at all. Earnhardt was the epitome of that. He was a competitor and losing wasn't an option, except if it was to his teammate and his son.

EDIT: You definitely need to watch that youtube video I linked above. After the crash you'll see that the driver of that Aflac car gets out of his vehicle (which is in flames) and runs down the front straightaway across the finish line so he can finish the Daytona 500. Pretty cool.