Word: earnhardts
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Hailing from Kannapolis, N.C., Earnhardt was a good ol' boy who made good, earning $41 million and starting a business, Dale Earnhardt Inc., that owned the car of his son, Dale Jr., who finished second, and winner Michael Waltrip (younger brother of Darrell). His driving style ruffled plenty of feathers, but in 1998, when Earnhardt won his only Daytona 500 on his 20th try, someone from nearly every Winston Cup crew in the infield reached out to slap his hand as he drove toward victory lane...
...Some of this mourning will turn to scrutiny - and concern that Earnhardt's death will be bad news for the sport. Some will wonder why Earnhardt didn't wear a full helmet with face shield while driving or have a HANS (head and neck support) system in his car like some of his colleagues. And the rule changes instituted for Sunday's race - restrictor plates and aerodynamic changes on cars to slow them down, making passing easier and the race more exciting because of it - will have their day under the hot lights...
...Part of Earnhardt's legend is the time he crawled out of an ambulance and limped back to his mangled car after learning it was still driveable. This time he hit the wall and didn't move. But for Earnhardt, at 49, to die at the top of his sport and the height of his popularity, on NASCAR's biggest stage? That may be as good, and as poignant, as sport gets, even if sports fans generally like their life-and-death struggles a little more on the metaphorical side. And by Monday morning everybody in America had gotten...
...rewarded with a race that featured a near-record 49 lead changes and a spectacular 18-car pile-up on lap 174 from which everybody walked away. By all accounts, an exciting race, and one that might have converted many of the estimated 30 million viewers. But the Earnhardt crash - that's the kind of thing that gets people involved, and when the main complaint about the fading-fast XFL is that it isn't extreme enough, NASCAR shouldn't be worried about that 18-24 male demographic getting turned off by the tragedy...
...Sports rise on their personalities, as the NBA did on the wings of Bird, Magic and Michael in the '80s and '90s, and NASCAR on Sunday lost its brightest star. But new levels of popularity (and demographic profitability) are not built on 49-year-olds. Earnhardt's old-school cred might have come in handy for a sport that can expect trouble from its traditionalists the more successful it becomes, and for a true NASCAR believer there was always Earnhardt to cut the bitter taste of pretty-boy superstar Jeff Gordon...