by: PattyKay

What follows is my own personal tribute to the greatest driver ever to sit behind a steering wheel.

This article has been seen at other times and other places, but on the anniversary of the day the light went out of racing, it seemed appropriate to present it once again and weep one more time.  The style employed here is not my usual writing. It was just too painful to write about Dale in the past tense, so instead, I wrote to him. It didn't help; I cried all the way through it back then, and if a few of the words seem a bit blurry this time around, well…tears will do that, even after a dozen years.