there will Never Ever be another driver like Dale Earnhardt

[Music] in the last episode of this series I talked about the appeal of professional wrestling a form of entertainment that disguises itself as a sport in this episode I'm gonna talk about NASCAR a sport which tries to disguise itself as entertaining today NASCAR's Monster Energy Cup Series tours around the country racing in front of mostly empty arenas as sponsorships and television ratings continue to wane at least with professional wrestling while not many fans enjoy it anymore there's still at least a small nucleus of people that still care about it it's nearly impossible to find anyone these days who actually cares about NASCAR hold on I'm gonna give my best NASCAR noise impression most people upon hearing the name NASCAR immediately think of a dumb sport where dumb rednecks watch cars go around in circles but I'm here to tell you that's wrong the cars actually go around in ovals in all seriousness though it ain't easy being a NASCAR fan it ain't easy having to constantly justify to people why you like something that's about as popular as licorice there was once a time when many more people liked NASCAR but that time has long since passed the vacuous boredom often associated with the sport today has paradoxically created intrigue for reasons why anyone would even like it in the first place trying to convince anybody to actually care about NASCAR as a pretty tall order but that won't stop me from trying because there's one driver in the sports turbulent history that truly embodies all of the reasons why NASCAR was at one time the second most popular sport in America this is the story of Dale Earnhardt [Music] many of my viewers like to draw comparisons between me and a writer by the name of John boys and it's pretty fair comparison considering John boys is one of my biggest inspirations as a creator today last Halloween John wrote a short story about a pitcher who sells his soul to Satan and falls away from the earth in the middle of a baseball game while this story is clearly a work of fiction it is eerily comparable to the real life and death of Dale Earnhardt our story begins in the rural American town of Kannapolis North Carolina sometime in the late 1960s a young Dale Earnhardt drops out of high school and uses what little money he has to start competing at locally sanctioned dirt track races Earnhardt most likely shares the same lofty unobtainable pipe dream as all of his competitors to work his way up the ranks and eventually race in the top series of NASCAR NASCAR like Dale Earnhardt had its origins in the rural American South the roots of the sport can be traced back to the Prohibition era where moonshiners attempting to smuggle barrels of illegal whiskey would tune up their cars to be able to outrun police when Prohibition ended in the 1930s the smugglers were left with nothing to do but race each other small unsanctioned races began to take place all across the south but perhaps no other place became a more popular racing destination than Daytona Beach Florida the beaches of Daytona feature finely grained sand that forms a hard compact surface ideal for auto racing in the early 20th century automotive engineers would use the beaches of Daytona to try to break the land speed record eventually record attempts would migrate to the salt flats of Bonneville Utah leaving Daytona open for a new frontier of stock car racing stock car racing differs greatly from other racing series such as IndyCar or Formula One these types of open wheel racing feature expertly crafted machines specifically designed to maximize speed and handling while open wheel machines require an impressive degree of skill and finesse to operate their design also leaves them very fragile rendering them virtually unable to contact each other on the track as even a slight tap can produce a scrapyard of wrecked race cars because of this open wheel racers rarely ever touch resulting in very clean and fluid racing stock cars are pretty much the complete opposite it essentially asked the question of what would happen if you bought a car from the dealership and started racing it naturally consumer grade cars are much more bulky and less aerodynamically dependent than their open wheel counterparts this allows stock cars to take much more of a beating while still remaining competitive leading to a style of racing that is slower but much more durable and contact heavy it's a style of racing that started to become wildly popular in the American South and perhaps no other man was more responsible for the rise of American stock car racing than Bill France bill France was a fan of stock car racing since the days of his youth and the roaring 20s where he would skip school to drive laps in his parents Model T when the Great Depression struck big bill would flee to Daytona with less than $100 to his name but he was able to stay afloat by racing cars on the beach eventually bill France would transition from race driver to race promoter and on February 21st 1948 he revolutionized American Motorsports by founding the National Association for stock car auto racing NASCAR before NASCAR stock car racing mostly featured scattered and disorganized events with inconsistent rules with no major governing body to sanction races there was nothing stopping some promoters from just not paying drivers the winnings they were owed NASCAR changed all of this by organizing a unified schedule of racing events complete with a singular rule set championship point system and guaranteed driver winnings NASCAR truly became the first legitimate stock her racing league in America and all of a sudden the allure of earning fame and fortune through a life of racing began to attract drivers from far and wide one of these drivers was a young Ralph Earnhardt who in 1953 started racing full-time in NASCAR's sportsman series Ralph Earnhardt's talent on quarter-mile dirt tracks made him a regional racing star in the Carolinas and even want him the sportsman Series championship in 1956 and even though he would use his racing talent to single-handedly lift himself out of poverty he surprisingly didn't wish the same destiny upon his son Dale Earnhardt both Ralph and Dale grew up in Kannapolis North Carolina a town so rural that it wasn't even incorporated until 1984 before that almost everyone born into this place had no way out only Ralph learn hurts Racing talent could save him from a lifelong career at the local cotton mill Dale Earnhardt saw his father as his greatest inspiration and he saw racing as his only real ticket to success Ralph Earnhardt didn't want his son to race despite his own talent in the sport talent is a very rare thing if everyone were talented no one would be Ralph Earnhardt probably knew this and if he had his way Dale Earnhardt would have quit racing to graduate high school and get a nice desk job in the big city he probably never expected his son to become one of the greatest drivers ever he never lived to see it either just 20 years after he began racing full-time Ralph Earnhardt died of a heart attack Dale Earnhardt could have followed his father's wishes and if he did he'd probably still be around today but instead he chose to follow in his father's footsteps and in trying to prove to his late father that he belonged in a race car Dale Earnhardt would accidentally become one of the best in the world just six years later he found himself at the crossroads of history [Music] covering a city block huh second in rush hour traffic tickle look at that Earnhardt blazes back into the front of the years are not your leader a turn for even at the very beginning of Dale Earnhardt's rookie season in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series his talent was undeniable for a moment he found himself leading the 21st annual Daytona 500 which may have been the most important race in the history of NASCAR Daytona International Speedway is quite possibly the greatest arena ever constructed by man the scale of this place is difficult to describe but let's just say it's big enough to be sunny on one end and stormy on the other this modern-day Coliseum is the fruit of one of the most ambitious engineering projects of the 20th century conceived from the outrageous imagination of none other than Bill France after 20 years of watching sloppy races on the beach bill France sought to construct a racetrack where drivers would never have to let off the throttle the result was a 2.5 mile long tri-oval surrounded by a 31 degree embankment the sheer size of these corners is downright intimidating it looks like you have a hard time walking up them let alone driving on them the mere architecture of this place boggles the mind today so you could only imagine the amazement of the 42,000 spectators who witnessed the inaugural running of the Daytona 500 the pure spectacle of almost 60 stock cars barreling around an asphalt Bowl at 135 miles per hour was something that no one had ever seen before and after an unforgettable photo finish the Daytona 500 immediately established itself as the most prestigious event on the NASCAR schedule for every stock car driver in America a win at Daytona is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow at the time of its opening in 1959 Daytona International Speedway was the largest track of its kind ten years later Bill France would build an even bigger one in Talladega Alabama and while Talladega Superspeedway would also go on to be very popular with fans it would not displace the Daytona 500 as NASCAR's crown jewel event and that's why in 1979 CBS selected to broadcast the full race live in front of a national audience it would be the first live broadcast of an entire 500-mile Motorsports event in the history of American television NASCAR found itself in a perfect storm of circumstances quite as on the day of the race a blizzard left most of the eastern US stuck indoors with nothing to do but watch the Daytona 500 an estimated 15 million viewers tuned in to this race and for a brief moment some of them got to see an unknown driver by the name of Dale Earnhardt leading the race while his father dominated on short tracks Dale Earnhardt would find his greatest success on the big ones even though they would also provide him with his greatest turmoil he didn't know it at the time nor did anybody else watching but Dale Earnhardt was cursed this is the story of a person at a place a racers relationship with a racetrack this was merely the first chapter of Dale vs. Daytona Earnhardt would go on to finish eighth out of 41 drivers in this race not bad for his very first attempt at NASCAR's most coveted prize Dale Earnhardt's rookie effort would be reduced to an afterthought however as everyone's attention was instead drawn to perhaps the greatest finish in the history of NASCAR let's all come down to this Donnie Allison in person where will Cale make his will that's him Richard Petty and here comes a $60,000 car becoming a 22 passenger school bus to bring his crew to Victory Lane and there's a fight between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison the tempers over boy they're angry they know they have lost and what a bitter defeat in just a matter of minutes the television audience got to experience dramatic racing a crash an unforgettable last lap pass NASCAR's most iconic drivers setting an unbreakable record and a bare-knuckle fist fight all on live TV all of a sudden the colloquial regional sport of NASCAR found itself with a national audience the finish made it all the way to the front page of the New York Times sports section and NASCAR would never be the same the 1979 season saw Dale Earnhardt capture his first career win in just a 16th start he would win the Rookie of the Year award for that season and go on to finish seventh in the overall standings in a year where Richard Petty won his seventh and final Winston Cup championship at this point in time Richard Petty is unanimously regarded as the greatest driver in the history of the sport looking at it today his career statistics seem almost mythical Petty's 200 career victories are almost doubled the next driver in NASCAR's all-time win list and his 7 Series championships were at the time more than double any other driver after the 1979 season the mere notion of any other driver challenging Petty's throne as the greatest of all time was laughable but if anyone were to do it it would have to be a driver the likes of which no one had ever seen number two is currently the leader a victory and hopefully to pick up some additional points as he is on his way in his sophomore year when I told you [Music] in 1980 Dale Earnhardt's shocked everyone by winning the Winston Cup Series championship in just a second full time season only the 15th different driver to achieve the title of NASCAR champion already in his young career Dale Earnhardt had joined some elite company but he would soon learn that even when you're great you're still a long way from the best although he began with one of the greatest starts to any career in NASCAR history Earnhardt's car owner rod österlen would unexpectedly sell his race team midway through the 1981 season Earnhardt reacted poorly to this transition and struggled for the next few seasons while bouncing from owner to owner after going winless in 1981 Dale Earnhardt had the worst statistical season of his career the following season finishing the 1982 campaign with an abysmal average finish of 19th while failing to finish more than half of his races for the year after such a promising beginning Earnhardt's Winston Cup career had slammed straight into a concrete wall [Music] Jayne's machine one of Earnhardt's 18 dns for the season resulted from a violent crash at Pocono that sent his number 15 Ford's skidding on its roof down the embankment of the first corner the accident would fracture his kneecap but it wouldn't stop the scrappy Earnhardt from racing the very next week at Talladega where he would suffer another hard crash this was surely the most trying time of Earnhardt's racing career many at this time began to wonder whether Earnhardt's 1980 championship was just a fluke but Dale Earnhardt was not like the other drivers he wasn't racing for the fame or the fortune he was racing to prove that he belonged he was racing to prove himself to his late father and when a man is dead set on accomplishing an impossible task he will never stop chasing it when faced with the lowest moment of his career Dale Earnhardt did what he always did he waited for an opportunity and pushed forward why they're a brilliant maneuver by Bernard checkered flag belongs stock car racing is all-time winner for Richard Petty you need a mower go with a bit go with low you'll be a winner at Lowe's every weekend America there is great NASCAR racing I wouldn't be anywhere else [Music] okay hey we were watching that join the club today and you'll see by 2019 won't be like 1984 in 1984 Dale Earnhardt found himself with a new owner Richard Childress and a new car number three he would stick with both of them for the rest of his career under Childress Earnhardt's career would immediately begin to rebound and it would mark the beginning of his finest era by 1986 Bernhard would be champion once more becoming just the 11th driver in history to win multiple nascar championships in 1987 he had the best statistical season of his career finishing the year with 11 wins and his third Cup championship and after this dominant season Earnhardt would return in black embracing his new role as the Intimidator now would probably be a good time to explain what exactly made Dale Earnhardt such a potent racer well Dale Earnhardt first learned his racing style from watching his father slide around on dirt tracks and he never really unlearned it remember earlier how I mentioned that the durability of stock cars allows them to more easily bump into each other well Dale Earnhardt would take this idea and turn his vehicle into a weapon Earnhardt would make frequent use of the bump and run a racing tactic where a driver uses the inertia of their own car to move other drivers out of the way and advance their position it's a maneuver that's practically unheard of in open-wheel racing because it's really only possible in a series like NASCAR even within NASCAR the bumping run is still a highly controversial move racing purists consider it a dirty tactic as it detracts from the skill of outlining your competitors other fans view it as a valid and necessary part of stock car racing considering it's a viable strategy that's not against the rules your outlook of this issue most likely determine whether or not you were a fan of Dale Earnhardt as his frequent use of the bump-and-run quickly made him one of the most polarizing drivers in NASCAR and as notoriety would only grow as it became one of the most dominant drivers in the sport for many drivers nothing was scarier than seeing Dale Earnhardt in your rear-view mirror if you saw the number three Chevy behind you you would either get out of his way or he wouldn't make you get out of his way for many years Earnhardt was NASCAR's greatest heel it's not fair and you know the thing of it is you go out you run as hard as you can all day long and then him trying to cut you out they outrun it that ain't the way I was brought up right if you weren't an Earnhardt van it was probably very easy to hate him because there was a good chance you could recall a time when he wrecked your favorite driver despite Earnhardt's tendency to enforce his will upon other drivers on the track he certainly had his fair share of supporters Dale Earnhardt raced in real life how anybody races the first time they pick up a NASCAR video game the other drivers were just obstacles separating him from first place many fans found Earnhardt's cavalier style endearing and relatable he would struggle and claw for every single position much like how many fans in the poor American South had to struggle for every paycheck who cares if he bangs up some other cars he's just trying to win like the rest of them an uneducated small-town hick with no other prospects trying to turn lemons into lemonade for anyone stuck in rural America Earnhardt represented the way-out standing outside of his car Earnhardt was just like them but as soon as he stepped inside that black number three he transformed into erasing God a lot of Earnhardt's detractors pointed to his racing style as an unfair crutch but eventually for anyone watching long enough his talent was undisputable although Dale earnheardt remains one of the most memorable NASCAR drivers to this day he was never the most popular driver that distinction belonged to Bill Elliott you know the thing of it is I have been not the aggressive driver all my life you know I've tried to give and tight with a basket of thing but when a guy cut child that bad and that obvious it's found the type of a chief awesome bill from Dawsonville Georgia was in many ways a foil to Dale Earnhardt he too came from a racing family and rose to prominence in the 80s as one of NASCAR's best the soft-spoken and humble Elliott contrasted heavily with the outspoken and brash Earnhardt whereas Earnhardt would gain notoriety for his combative racing style the name of Elliott's game was speed over the past decade in NASCAR the overall speeds of the race cars had gradually risen especially on the giant super speedways of Daytona and Talladega in 1984 Cale Yarborough became the first stock car driver in history to set a 200 mile-per-hour qualifying lap at Daytona the very next lap he will lose control and total his race car as the speeds crept upwards the drivers crept ever closer to the edge of control despite the newfound risk NASCAR's top speeds continue to climb with each new Super Speedway event engineers and crews would roll out ever so faster cars and from 1985 to 1987 no car was faster than bill Elliott's red and white Ford Thunderbird perhaps his most stunning achievement came in the 1985 Winston 500 when Elliott cut an oil line and fell two laps behind the leaders only to make up the entire deficit under green and win the race his car was simply that much faster than the others in modern times nobody has monopolized NASCAR racing like Bill Elliott he has raced around this season faster than a person throwing double sixes two years later at the same event Bill Elliott would set NASCAR's all-time speed record two hundred twelve point eight miles per hour [Music] for comparison the poll speed for the Indianapolis 500 that same year the fastest open-wheel race was 2:15 it's also important to note that on average a stock car weighs about twice as much as an Indy car there's been a pretty big elephant in the room during this whole video so far I've talked on and on about the history of NASCAR but I've yet to explain why people actually like it I mean sure it's easy to cherry-pick the sports most exciting moments but what about the other 99% of the time is just regular old fashioned racing what's the appeal of watching cars go around in circles well long story short people don't watch a NASCAR for the same reasons they watch other sports you can pick up a football and start playing right now in your backyard you can't just hop in a NASCAR and start racing people in order to understand the appeal of NASCAR we have to talk about soldiers astronauts and prestige being a soldier comes with a certain amount of prestige most people find their sacrifice admirable but you don't have to search far to find people who disagree you'd be hard-pressed however to find anyone who doubts the prestige of an astronaut you can talk about intelligence and science degrees and technical skill all you want but the fact of the matter is that soldiers fight against other soldiers and man-made wars while astronauts fight against the surly bonds of nature itself it takes bravery to volunteer yourself to go fight in some far-off foreign land but it takes a whole nother level of bravery to strap yourself into a pressurized metal canister and fly out of the top of the sky astronauts have so much prestige because they come the closest to kissing the snarling jaws of certain death there's no denying that war is also deadly but humans have been fighting and killing each other since the dawn of man it's easy to understand the nature of warfare it's difficult to understand the limits of nature itself and nothing is more terrifying than what we don't understand ah Who am I kidding this is a dumb analogy NASCAR drivers are nothing like astronauts I mean come on have you ever seen a NASCAR fly [Music] in the race immediately corresponding with Bill Eliot's record-breaking qualifying lap Bobby Allison would blow a tire in the tri-oval the back of his car would lift off the ground and sail into the catch fence at nearly 200 miles per hour it turns out that if you spin a car sideways at a fast enough speed the aerodynamics will force the car aloft like the wing of an airplane in the 1987 Winston 500 the 210 mile per hour pace was enough to lift up Bobby Allison's 3500 pound race car like a piece of paper for a brief surreal moment all of NASCAR Stood Still by pure chance Allison's left front fender clipped the wall the instant before the back of his car hit the catch fence which redirected the momentum of his car away from the spectators had Allison spun at just a slightly different angle we could have witnessed a tragedy on the scale of the 1955 LeMond disaster where an out-of-control race car was projected into the stands at a very high speed eighty-three spectators were killed in the catastrophe fleeting many European nations to place a temporary ban on all Motorsports to this day it remains the deadliest accident in racing history Allison's car had sheared a 100-foot gap in the protective fencing and NASCAR fans found themselves staring into an eerie window of what could have happened miraculously only five spectators were injured and no one was killed the line between driver and spectator had been severed and it could have ended NASCAR entirely fortunately NASCAR would make good use of their second chance as the era of speed came to a permanent end [Music] this accident would force NASCAR to implement restrictor plates at all future Super Speedway races which would limit the horsepower of all cars to keep them below dangerous speeds this would profoundly change the way drivers raced at Daytona and Talladega gone were the days of Bill Elliott making up five miles under green restrictor plates made it so that cars could no longer pull away from each other instead emphasizing the attractive effects of slipstream simple racing moves such as passing were now drastically altered as timing and aerodynamics were now much more important than speed and handling restrictor ate it all up it made everybody the same speed and that made it so probably more dangerous than with him naturally many drivers were unhappy with this new change and no driver hated restrictor plate racing more than Dale Earnhardt which was a little odd considering he was the best restrictor plate race err on the planet [Music] it was one of the most dominant runs of any race category in motorsports history and it happened during a time when NASCAR had arguably its toughest ever competition the 90s truly were a golden age of NASCAR in popular culture attendance and television ratings steadily rose as movies like Days of Thunder drew intrigue from across the nation big brands and TV networks were lining up to capture their own slice of the booming NASCAR scene NASCAR had gone fully national and it had fundamentally transformed itself from a simple showcase of speed in the prior decade the sponsors drivers tracks and cars had all changed but one thing remained the same Dale Earnhardt was dominating the competition from 1990 to 1994 Dale Earnhardt would win four more Cup championships tying Richard Petty's record of seven a record considered by many to be untouchable just ten years prior with each new championship it became harder and harder for people to disregard Earnhardt success although many still resented his racing Seidel you can't win seven NASCAR championships without being a pretty talented driver Earnhardt's detractors were simply running out of excuses to denies greatness soon there was only one thing keeping Dale out of the conversation for the greatest of all time I've you've not won Daytona right I've won Daytona the Firecracker race in July but I haven't won the Daytona 500 that's like the Superbowl race for us [Music] after 17 years of effort the Daytona 500 belongs to Franklin Tennessee he's done in 1989 darrell waltrip won his first and only daytona 500 in a 17th attempt at the time he was considered the best driver to never win it and after he did everyone was left to wonder about the next best driver to take Waltrip's place immediately many thought of Dale Earnhardt who had yet to win the Daytona 500 after 11 tries but surely in 1990 while entering the final corner of the final lap in first place after leading three-quarters of the race Earnhardt could put the narrative to rest they still run single-file halfway down the back straightaway half a lap to go still Earnhardt now stretching his lead by another car lengths over cope the body can't do anything with Derrick [Music] jail what the heck happened on the last lap we've run over some debris and cut a right rear tire down dated just a quarter of a lap away from victory in 1991 Earnhardt would damage his car after hitting a seagull forcing him to pit he would battle all the way back to second place before crashing with two laps to go Dale Earnhardt fails to win the Daytona 500 again in 1992 Earnhardt would get caught up in a crash that wasn't his fault a newfound consequence of restrictor plate racing were massive crashes that would often wipe out over a dozen cars after a while these crashes seemed almost inevitable due to the extremely close pack racing that now resembled rush-hour traffic but at a hundred 90 miles per hour one slight error by a single driver could spark a chain reaction that would take many cars out of the race it was one of our hearts main reasons for hating restrictor plate racing and he would fall victim to it numerous times in 1993 Earnhardt would once again lead most of the race only to finish second after Dale Jarrett passed him on the final lap after a seventh place finish in 94 Earnhardt would finish second again in 1995 and again in 1996 later in the 96 season Earnhardt would suffer a horrific looking crash that sent his number 3 Chevy tumbling down the Talladega front stretch [Music] Dale Earnhardt attempting to walk to the ambulance as he walks away from one of the worst incidents in his racing career well it was known that Dale Earnhardt hated restrictor plate racing it was starting to look like restrictor plate racing hated him we get the right help we're at the right place right times like I just don't record I said what do you think you know when better than that days he said I've been here a lot of times before and you can bet he's been in the full pan right now with that throttle pedal but if it's racing God's time the shadownet three we'll just have to see as was the formula at this point Earnhardt ran up front all day and found himself in a battle for the lead with just a few laps to go and all of a sudden he found himself on his roof once again down the back straightaway big and over number three and for the 19th time Lady Luck heals a bad hand I'm not sure I actually believe in curses but Dale Earnhardt's misfortune and the Daytona 500 really made me consider it for some wicked reason the seven-time NASCAR champion and best super speedway racer in the world could not for the life of him win this one super speedway race Earnhardt's gut-wrenching futility at this one event is made even more insane when you consider that he's the winningest driver in the history of the track no seriously by 1997 Earnhardt had won pretty much every stocker event at Daytona multiple times over all except the one that mattered most after 19 tries and 19 failures he should have been completely discouraged but Dale Earnhardt was not a quitting man he wasn't even willing to quit this race [Music] this thing is so beat up it really can make it's an absolute miracle even though he no longer had any chance of winning Dale Earnhardt would hop out of the ambulance and back into his mangled car to finish the race when faced with the lowest moment of his career Dale Earnhardt did what he always did he waited for an opportunity and pushed forward [Music] there's a slow car up ahead and their trouble coming off the turn to do some together 20 years of trying 20 years of frustration [Applause] every man on every crew has come out to the edge of pit lane to congratulate the man who has dominated everything there is to win in this sport except this race until today they used to Moo Dale Earnhardt when he was winning too much that'll happen if you dominate any sport but today when they introduced the Intimidator the crowd was full of cheers for all men race fans and all them people have been saying Dale this is you here Dale this is year and boy a lot of them said it this year the Daytona 500 is ours we've won it we've won it we won the hangover from Earnhardt's Daytona 500 victory lasted throughout the 1998 season where Dale would not win another race and finish a distant eighth and points perhaps overcoming the single greatest foe in his racing career was a little demotivating after winning the 500 yard had almost nothing left to accomplish he could have tried for another championship breaking the tie with Richard Petty but both he and a lot of others began to tell that his age was starting to get the best of him later in the 98 season Earnhardt suffered his second hard crash at Talladega in two years in the post race interview Earnhardt for the first time ever sounded fed up exhausted and demoralized what was the day like up to that point good it's not good racing no no y'all can talk about all you want ain't good racing in 1999 earned her would infamously dump Terry Labonte to win at Bristol [Music] any goodwill he had from his crowning achievement just a year prior had worn out its welcome as Aaron Hart was showered in a chorus of boos from the 140,000 in attendance [Music] at this point Earnhardt and the fans had a mutual yearning for something new I'm never doing heart after he just wanted that hard 500 what's the question dude while Dale earnheardt never achieved his dream of racing alongside his father he was able to race alongside his son Dale Earnhardt jr. made his full-time Winston Cup debut in 2000 under his father's own race team Dale jr. captured his first career win in just his 12th overall start almost 21 years to the day of his father's first win in victory lane that day Dale senior appeared to take more pride in his sons accomplishment than any of his own racing with his son seemed to renew Dale Earnhardt's sense of purpose some would say that's all he ever really wanted to race side-by-side with his own flesh and blood and although the aging Earnhardt was nearing the end of his career he would still make you think twice about questioning his greatness [Music] a hard time to come up [Music] [Music] straight [Music] [Applause] [Applause] legend has it that Dale Earnhardt was so good at restrictor plate racing because he could see the air coming off of the other cars and used this ability to perfectly time his passes Dale Earnhardt 76th and final career win came fittingly in a restrictor plate race at Talladega take a look at this moment that is Michael Waltrip out of control try oval into a series of Sidewinders nine shattering snap-roll prior to the start of the 2001 season de I signed Michael Waltrip to drive the number 15 Chevy Michael Waltrip had spent his entire career racing in the shadow of his older brother Darrell and after 15 lackluster seasons Michael Waltrip was still seeking his first career win Dale Earnhardt believed in Michael however and he would open 2001 racing not just with his son but with his team I think all of you know what happens next it was probably the only thing you knew about Dale Earnhardt on 1 February afternoon Dale Earnhardt what enters black number three for the final time [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] this kind of racing is gonna happen crash on the back straightaway that began when Tony Stewart got turned sideways against the backstretch wall number 20 when it gets hit by every car in the fields inviting Tony Stewart's car just took away love around ganya Paula because there's no place to go incidentally the crash would leave Dale earnheardt in third position behind the Dei cars of Dale jr. and Michael Waltrip as the laps wound down everyone began to realize that Dale Earnhardt wasn't trying to win the race rather he was holding back the rest of the field so that his team could win instead Dale managed to hold off everybody until the final corner of the final lap the cameras cut away from the accident it should have been one of the happiest moments in NASCAR history as Darrell Waltrip joyfully commentated his brothers first win on the grandest stage of all a storybook ending to a picturesque day of thrilling action-packed racing and then the cameras cut the Dale Earnhardt's crumpled vehicle lying at rest in the infield grass nobody knew it at the time but the greatest tragedy in NASCAR history had just occurred Dale Earnhardt NASCAR's greatest driver was dead at 49 this is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements that I've ever personally had to make but after the accident in turn four at the end of the Daytona 500 we've lost Dale Earnhardt [Music] the official cause of death is listed as a basilar skull fracture sustained as a result of blunt force trauma when Dale Earnhardt's struck the turn for a wall he died instantly looking back on it all today it's hard to believe it even happened Dale Earnhardt was NASCAR's Ironman the toughest driver in the sport he hadn't missed a race since his rookie season he walked away from this and this why did he die from this how did no one die from this crash earlier in the race well at over 190 miles per hour destinies can be profoundly altered by a matter of inches NASCAR's greatest tragedy was avoided by inches and NASCAR's greatest tragedy was caused by inches in the lap 173 crash Dale Earnhardt was just inches away from getting collected ironically you've earned her to just been a little less fortunate here it's likely that he would still be alive today I remember him coming on there and I came to memory Fitz before since a wreck happened or during there caught the red flag but he said Richard if they don't do something to these cars it's going to end up killing somebody Dale Earnhardt was always aware of NASCAR's darkest secret you just never imagined that he'd be the one reminding everyone of the truth NASCAR is caked with the blood of dead drivers the reason NASCAR was so compelling was because it was deadly obviously no one actively wished death upon drivers but it was mutually understood as an inherent risk of gliding around in a 3,500 pound hunk of metal at 190 miles per hour every few years or so a driver would unexpectedly die in a race since the very beginning of the sport this was the dark reality in the back of everyone's mind you never wanted to see it happen but when it did you accepted it as inevitable and moved on Dale's death was very different though many racing fans still haven't moved on it was just too painful the biggest icon in racing dying in the middle of the biggest event imagine of Michael Jordan died during the NBA Finals or if Tom Brady died during the Superbowl this is what it felt like watching Dale Earnhardt die in the Daytona 500 and in my humble opinion is the single worst tragedy in the history of American sports even though Dale Earnhardt's death was a devastating shock for the millions of fans watching you could at least take solace and knowing that he probably wouldn't have wanted to go out any other way Dale Earnhardt died doing what he loved and his final memory was watching his own drivers speeding towards the finish line with nothing but open racetrack in front of them I think they learned hard is the best race driver it's ever been and stock-car how do you feel about that yeah that's a big statement I had him you know I think my dad was the greatest when it comes to racers for as much as he accomplished no one knew for sure Dale ever felt he proved himself to his father it's a burden he took to his grave leaving us to wonder about Dale much in the same way Dale had to wonder about Ralph the only thing we know for sure is that Dale finally caught up with his father's ghost the story doesn't end here although NASCAR suffered perhaps its greatest of her loss they still had 35 more races to run that season when faced with their lowest moment NASCAR had no other option but to push forward [Music] scores the second straight corporated with an urn hard hat in his hand Steve Parker drive to Victory Lane [Music] [Music] a year ago with Dale Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte kevin harvick as the band saluted Dale laughs he'll the department salutes upon the way the Victory Lane in following him that run hang out again what could be more fitting could be more special [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] here they come turn [Music] [Applause] and with the most cathartic moment in NASCAR history Dale Earnhardt jr. would win at the track that took his father's life just five months earlier for many fans this win was enough to heal the wounds from the tragedy of that year's Daytona 500 some fans thought this finish was literally too good to be true and that NASCAR rigged it a compelling theory until you consider the years of Dei restrictor plate dominance that followed from 2001 through 2003 Dei carried the torch of Dale Earnhardt's restrictor plate prowess by winning nine of the twelve Super Speedway events in 2004 Dale jr. would achieve what took his father 20 years by winning the Daytona 500 in just his fifth attempt continues jr. wins the 46th Daytona 500 following the death of Dale Earnhardt NASCAR will work to implement an unprecedented amount of driver safety improvements most notably the Hans device safer barrier and carve tomorrow to make sure that an accident like Dale Earnhardt's could never happen again [Music] incredibly hard impact look at say look at look at that safer berry right there had just crushed all that stuff wave to the fans my goodness and to this day Dale Earnhardt still remains NASCAR's last fatality unfortunately NASCAR's great strides and drivers safety may be the only positive news for the sport in the past decade attendance sponsorships and television ratings have all drastically declined in the past ten years leaving the few remaining fans to wonder what exactly drove everyone away some people blame the recent mismanagement from Brian France and other NASCAR executives some people blame the chase and other gimmicks that have alienated NASCAR's core fan base some people blame the lack of interesting or relatable drivers some people blame the recession and how it hit NASCAR's karate is the hardest preventing them from going to races if you ask me however the main reason so many fans stopped watching NASCAR is ironically because it got safer as morbid as it is to say by removing the inherent risk of racing NASCAR removed the one thing that separated them from all other sports today NASCAR drivers have never been farther from the snarling jaws of certain death and the sport has been made far less compelling as a result I gave thanks the team runs across the start/finish lines of the camp that's what he's doing finished the race and he did standing ovations from the ground shades of Ricky Bobby ever since that fateful day NASCAR fans have been trying to fill the void that Dale Earnhardt left there's the driver who carried on his name Dale Earnhardt jr. following his father's passing he became NASCAR's perennial most popular driver until his retirement in 2017 although he finished with a respectable twenty six career wins Dale jr. failed to capture a single championship and could never live up to his father's godlike legacy there's the driver who carried on his car Kevin Harvick who was able to capture at least one championship and his own Daytona 500 victory a successful career for sure but not much compared to Earnhardt's there's the driver who carried on his title as the seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson who in 2016 became the third ever driver to accomplish this feat while he is statistically the best driver since Earnhardt Johnson never managed to appeal to the fans in the same way as his relatively bland demeanor failed to capture the hearts and minds of the greater audience and then there's the driver who carried on Earnhardt's number after the tragedy Richard Childress retired the number from active competition for over a decade but he brought it back in 2014 for the full time Cup debut of his grandson Austin Dillon in 2015 at the finish of the July Daytona race Dillon would suffer a gruesome looking accident where his car was launched directly into the catch fence for a brief moment every fan watching tensed up in horror after witnessing what they thought was the second fatality in the three car at Daytona incredibly Austin Dillon walked away from this with only minor injuries some have called him the luckiest driver in NASCAR today but his luck hasn't contributed to much success on the track so far after five full time seasons Dillon has only two wins to his name one of those wins came in the 2018 Daytona 500 as twenty years after Earnhardt storybook victory the three car returned to Victory Lane at Daytona and Erica with the number 320 years ago 20 years of trying for Earnhardt he won the Daytona 500 Austin Dillon wins the 60th running of the great American race we're all searching for the next Dale Earnhardt but we know deep down that he's irreplaceable many fans consider Earnhardt the greatest NASCAR driver of all time possibly because we never got to see him decline Dale Earnhardt remained one of the best drivers in the sport till the day he died and even then he still finished ahead of 30 other drivers everyone knows what it's like to be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and all of us experienced the same desire to break free from all the gridlock not just from the traffic but from everything responsibilities labor Authority sometimes there's no better feeling than seeing miles of open road in front of you Dale Earnhardt gave this feeling to millions watching at home and seeing Dale succeed made them believe they could too for many Dale Earnhardt was a real-life hero but most people will never know his story most people only know him as some guy who died they'll never know about the turmoil the struggle the determination the notoriety the heartbreak or the triumph they'll never care about any of it because who could care about a bunch of cars going round in circles NASCAR may never be popular again realistically it probably should have never become popular in the first place it's just a simple sport where no-name Hillbillies gather to watch a bunch of fast cars race each other but Dale Earnhardt made it mean more than that and for as long as NASCAR sticks around stock car racing fans will always remember the man in the black number three because there will never ever be another driver like him they got plenty of money don't need that to keep racing is it worth the risk could keep on going sure to win [Music] [Music] you

Channel: EmpLemon

Views: 2,487,899

Rating: 4.925477 out of 5

Keywords: EmpLemon, Never Ever, Dale Earnhardt, Nascar, Daytona 500

Id: IxTAJNifDAI

Length: 54min 56sec (3296 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/nascarfan88421032]

I’m subscribed to him and this SHOCKED me when I saw it in the recommended. And he is a great you-tuber, it’s a good video.

[u/DLGaming79]

Just watched it and came here to see if anyone else posted it already. Who is amazing at editing and his presentation as a whole is incredible. It’s worth the watch

[u/ilostmyshoes11]

For someone who has watched his videos for nearly 6 years, he is truly one of the best on the platform. It sucks that YouTube has deserted its original mission of giving creators and everyday people a chance to be recognized and instead focus on wooing companies and celebrities. I know its unavoidable but they have handled it so poorly and basically censored content that doesn’t fit within their views.

[u/[deleted]]

I’ve seen him comment on one nascar video and like the stewart vs hamlin battle in 2016 sonoma so ain’t THAT surprised

[u/DrLarryHankins]

Never realized he liked NASCAR until one day when he commented on the Keselowski vs Gordon video. So this is an interesting treat.

[u/Jahgee1124]

Very well done video that has 19K views in 1 hour since being uploaded, this is the kind of stuff NASCAR needs more of

[u/Antonius363]

I truly recommend this video to help people get into Nascar. Please spread this in the subreddit

[u/smitty3672]

He did an incredible job with this video the clips from all the old interviews as well as breifly summarizing the rivals he had the time im really impressed with it

[u/Racing2733]

this is brilliant