Word: daytona
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NASCAR racers drive stock cars, simultaneously primitive and ultrasophisticated versions of the Fords, Chevies, Pontiacs and Dodges in America's driveways. These cars have engine blocks of 1960s vintage; neither you nor I have bought a car with a carburetor for 15 years, but Earnhardt drove one at Daytona. Certainly his Monte Carlo was a modified machine: its engine had been juiced to about 720 h.p.; its sheet-metal skin was lighter than a road-ready car's; its roll bars were designed to render the cab a fast-moving cage...
...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...