Dale Jr Is Back on Top

24 Feb, 2014

Dale Earnhardt Jr. cruised down pit road, stopping just long enough for Rick Hendrick to climb halfway inside his window for the short lift to Victory Lane.

NASCAR’s most popular driver had to wait out a rain delay of more than six hours, then a chaotic close to end a 55-race drought dating back to 2012. His breakthrough win came at Daytona International Speedway, where he’d finished second in three of the previous four 500s and won “The Great American Race” a decade ago.

His emotions were clearly mixed in the moments after the finish. He screamed the win was better than the first as he took the checkered flag, then did an about-face in Victory Lane.

“I’m grateful to have one it twice now. I was grateful to have won it once,” he said. “In about six months, I’ll be as urgent to try to do it a third time as I was after the first.”

When he finally arrived for his post-race news conference, soaked in beer and champagne nearly two hours after the win and a little over 11 hours after the race first began, he practically sprinted into the room. Arms raised, he yelled “Woo!”

“I bet someone hasn’t come in here and screamed in 30 years,” he said early Monday morning. “They used to!”

They were screaming as he crossed the finish line – those who stayed in the grandstands through the rain delay, and his die-hard fans all across the country.

“The world is right right now – Dale Junior just won the Daytona 500,” teammate Jeff Gordon said. “That’s a sign it’s going to be a great season.”

Rain stopped the race about 45 minutes after it began for a delay of more than six hours. When it resumed, Earnhardt dominated at the track where his father was killed in an accident on the last lap of the 2001 race.

He led six times for a race-high 54 laps – all after the rain delay – and seemed to have it under control until things got chaotic near the end. There were 42 lead changes and four multi-car accidents as the field closed in on the checkered flag.

An accident with seven laps to go triggered by pole-sitter Austin Dillon, driving the No. 3 – Earnhardt’s father’s number made its return to the Daytona 500 for the first time since 2001 – set up a final two-lap shootout to the finish.

AP

Image Getty Images

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