Word: daytona
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...taking Earnhardt out of a race." Neil Bonnett, Earnhardt's best friend at the time, said, "If I can ever catch him, I'm gonna knock the s___ out of him." Bonnett, it is eerie to note, died in 1994 after crashing his Chevrolet into the wall at Daytona's Turn...
...racing. Chrysler, despite deep corporate troubles, had committed north of $60 million to the effort, and it was out for glory. "Dodge's appearance certainly did increase the level of competition," says Kevin Kennedy, a spokesman for Ford's racing division. "There was [Dodge] red everywhere you went in Daytona...
...they had the new cars and a brand-new $2.4 billion network TV contract, and the last thing NASCAR officials wanted at their showcase event was a repeat of the boring 2000 Daytona, which featured only nine lead changes and a walkaway win by Jarrett. Last autumn they experimented at the circuit's other superspeedway course, Talladega, with ways of slowing down the cars to make for bunched, exciting racing. Some of the drivers had come out of Talladega looking ashen--"A little too exciting at times for me," admitted Gordon--but there had been 49 lead changes...
What does it feel like to earn a living making left turns in heavy traffic at dangerously high speeds? Just ask Derrike Cope, 42, who won the Daytona 500 in 1990 and now calls races for the Fox Sports Network: "There is nothing like sitting in a projectile going 190 m.p.h. on the brink of going out of control. It's the sheer rush, touching every emotion you have." And a potentially lethal rush: three other NASCAR drivers died in the year leading up to Dale Earnhardt's crash...
There are moments, though, when it takes more than a nod to acknowledge danger. In February 1994, Neil Bonnett died on a practice run a week before the Daytona 500. Neil was a good friend--and Dale's closest. Dale had qualified fourth that year, but I was in the back of the pack. We talked before the race, and Dale spied my wife Stevie slipping me a card with a note written on it. He asked her about it. She told him that for years before every race, she would write out some biblical verse--whichever she found most...