By Randy Myers
As I write this, it has been ten years and a day since “The Intimidator” lost his life at Daytona International Speedway on the final lap of “The Great American Race”. On that day a piece of the sport many of us grew up in and around died with Dale Earnhardt.
I was a Dale Earnhardt lover. I was a Dale Earnhardt hater. I raced against him a couple of times. I watched him race hundreds of times. I watched him bring his kids through the ranks of short tracks like Tri-County Motor Speedway, where I was fortunate to work. Through all those races, good or bad, I grew to respect the things he did with a race car and the things he did outside that race car, but most of all, I grew to respect the fact that Dale Earnhardt was always the same Dale Earnhardt, from the first time I saw him till that fateful February day in 2001. By that I mean, if he knew you, he was approachable, friendly, somewhat shy, always direct, and always Dale. If he didn’t know you, well let’s just say he was always Dale. Personality and legend aside, he was simply one of the best drivers to ever strap into the seat of a race car.
