July 5, 2010
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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Minutes after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Subway Jalapeno 250 Nationwide Race Friday night at Daytona International Speedway, the conspiracy theorists came out of the woodwork screaming that the race was fixed.
Sometimes good things just happen. That may be hard to believe in today's culture, but it’s a fact of life that some people just need to accept and get over. How could a race be fixed anyway? It doesn't make sense.
If NASCAR wanted to "fix" this race, they wouldn't have thrown a caution while Earnhardt was leading with three laps left when Paul Menard blew a tire, especially given the unpredictability of the Green – White – Checkered format that was recently instituted. Anything can happen under those conditions, especially for the race leader, who is generally a sitting duck in a restart at a restrictor plate track.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is NASCAR. If the racing was fixed, he would be winning a lot more often than he is. The last race Earnhardt won was more than two years ago in the Cup series at Michigan. Why would they wait two years to "fix" a race for their most popular driver?
However, being NASCAR's most popular driver brings a lot of criticism. When the plans were announced that he intended to honor his father's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in this manner, a lot of condemnation came his way. People said that the No. 3 shouldn’t be raced again. He endured the criticism and prevailed in the end.
"I was so worried that I wasn't going to win, because nothing but winning was good enough, for everybody in the world," Earnhardt was quoted as saying in an AP article on espn.com. "If you didn't win, what a waste of time."
He intended the entire project to be a tribute to his father and indeed it was. The No. 3 Wrangler car was driven to victory lane again by an Earnhardt. There is no more fitting tribute to the legend of the Intimidator than that.
He also stated after the race that it would be the last time he drives the 3 car. It's proper that paint scheme and car number go to victory lane the last time it's on the track with Earnhardt Jr. behind the wheel.
Regardless of whether or not he won the race, it still wouldn't have been in vain. An entirely new generation of fans got to see those legendary colors on the track. Something like that doesn't happen every day.
"I worked hard to try to win it, not only for Daddy, I am proud of him going into the Hall of Fame, and he would be proud of this, I'm sure," Earnhardt was quoted. "Just all his fans. He had so many great fans. Not just mine. This is for his fans. Hopefully, they enjoyed this."
Not only was the victory a tribute to his father; it was a tribute to the fans of The Intimidator as well. History was made Friday night at Daytona and it will live forever in the hearts and minds of the legions of loyal Earnhardt fans.
Perhaps an emotional Tony Eury Jr. expressed the sentiments of the family and of the fans of the Intimidator best.
"We lost everything here," Eury said in the same article. "To come back with that number and do this, it means everything."
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