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February 18, 2001
It's not too often I find myself writing articles coming so deeply from the heart, and I'm not an overly emotional person by nature. However, a cord deep inside me was struck today while watching the final laps of NASCAR's most famous event, the Daytona 500, and the death of my favorite driver. Along with off-roading, I've been a die-hard motorsports fan for years and grew up watching my heroes like Walker Evans, A.J. Foyt, Don Garlits, Rick Mears, Parnelli Jones and so many others racing into various victory circles and infamy. However, today's coverage of the Daytona 500 was horrifying and bittersweet as I watched Dale Earnhardt die when he collided into the wall of turn 4 on the last lap while protecting his teammate's and son's win today. Michael Waltrip, today's winner and newly acquired teammate for Dale Earnhardt Inc., and Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced to the checkered flag for a clean 1-2 finish.
"Undoubtedly this is one of the toughest announcements I've personally had to make," reported Mike Helton, NASCAR's president during a press conference, "After the accident in turn four at the end of the Daytona 500, we've lost Dale Earnhardt." As well Bill France, chairman of the board for NASCAR, was quoted as saying, "NASCAR has lost its greatest driver, and I personally have lost a great friend."
For any of us that are into off-roading, I'd be willing to lay odds that a very large majority of you are also a fan of some other type of motorsport as well, and if so, have watched one of your favorite athletes get injured or even die. They do it for the love of the sport and mostly for the love of the fans, and even if you don't know these people personally, you definitely feel as if you do and the untimely death of any one of our favorite sports heroes is sorrowful and unfortunate to say the very least.
Dale Earnhardt a seven time Winston Cup champion leaves behind wife Teresa, daughters Kelley King and Taylor, sons Kerry and Dale Jr., his mother and other siblings.
On behalf of the entire staff at 4X4REVIEW, our deepest sympathies go out to the Earnhardt family.
CNN.com and NASCAR.COM have more details, interviews and coverage.
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