How do you spell NASCAR? If you’re like the millions of car racing fans, you’d spell it DALE EARNHARDT.
This past Sunday, at the legendary Datona 500, Seven Time Winston Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt died in a fatal crash in the last lap of the race from severe head injuries.
Quite possibly the greatest NASCAR racer who has, or will ever, race was not only a pioneer to the sport, but a humanitarian that gave everything to the sport and his fans.
The 49-year-old Earnhardt, affectionately known as “The Intimidator,” fully lived up to his name on the track, bullying the other drivers and maneuvering his rig like no other could. His menacing presence on the track would disappear once the race was done; off the track, he was just human and wanted to be thought of as such.
Not only a driver, Earnhardt was an owner of two cars that appropriately took first and second in Dale’s final race. Even more fitting, his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. was one of those drivers.
Maybe you don’t follow stock car racing, but surely you at least know of the Icon that is Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt is to racing as Michael Jordan is to basketball, or Tiger Woods to golf.
So send a thought to his home state of North Carolina as the rest of the world mourns the loss of one of the finest athletes the sports world has ever known.