Earnhardt Seeks His Missing Link : Auto racing: Although the 38-year-old driver is considered among the greatest of all time, he has never won the Daytona 500.

Mounted on a wall in Richard Childress’ private racing museum is a shredded Goodyear tire. It hangs right above an enormous stuffed bear that Dale Earnhardt bagged in Alaska.

“That tire cost us $800,000, maybe $900,000, so we couldn’t just throw it away,” Earnhardt explained.

It may also have cost Earnhardt overdue recognition as one of stock car racing’s greatest drivers. Maybe, considering the competition today, the greatest--greater than Fireball Roberts or Junior Johnson, Richard Petty or David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip or Bobby Allison.

The 38-year-old second generation driver from Kannapolis, N.C., has accomplished more than any driver other than Petty since Bill France brought racing in from the back roads of the Carolinas 40 years ago and packaged it on superspeedways across the country.

The missing link is winning the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt without a Daytona 500 is like Sam Snead without a U. S. Open, Ernie Banks without a World Series, Nolan Ryan without a Cy Young Award.

Today, in the 33rd annual Daytona 500 on the Daytona International Speedway tri-oval, Earnhardt will be an overwhelming favorite to end that oversight. The scenario is much like last year. He was also favored then, and ran like it, until he ran out of racing luck.

That cut tire in car owner Childress’ museum--ripped and torn from traveling a little more than a mile after it was punctured--prevented Earnhardt from adding the Daytona 500 to a portfolio that includes four Winston Cup championships, 48 NASCAR victories, recognition as American driver of the year in 1987 and more than $12 million in winnings since his rookie year, 1979.

Earnhardt had led 155 of the 200 laps and was cruising toward the checkered flag on the final lap when his black Chevy Lumina ran over debris coming out of the second turn. The tire began deflating as Earnhardt raced down the backstretch and the car became almost unmanageable as he reached the 31-degree bank on the third turn.

While Earnhardt fought for control high up on the bank, Derrike Cope, Terry Labonte, Bill Elliott and Ricky Rudd took the low road and destroyed his dreams. Cope, an unlikely candidate for victory, got to the finish stripe first and set off a celebration in his hometown of Spanaway, Wash.

“You can’t kick the car and cry and pout and squall and bawl,” Earnhardt said at the time. “After all, it’s not the Daytona 499. You’ve got to take it and walk on.”

And walk on he did, winning nine races and four pole positions in running down Mark Martin for his fourth Winston Cup championship. Among the nine victories were the the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the Winston 500 at Talladega which, had he won the Daytona 500, would have earned Earnhardt a $1-million bonus from Winston. Instead, he collected $100,000 for having won two of the four Winston Million races.

“Any way you look at it, that cut tire adds up to $900,000,” he said.

Earnhardt also dispelled the idea that Daytona might be a jinx track when he won the Pepsi 400 last July, a victory that moved him in range of Martin, who had led much of the season. With only two races remaining, Earnhardt trailed Martin by 46 points, then won at Phoenix and finished third at Atlanta, taking the title by 26.

“The one question I’m asked the most is what winning meant to me personally,” Earnhardt said. “The first thing I thought was that it moved me out a deadlock with four other drivers (Lee Petty, Pearson, Yarborough and Waltrip) and made me the only one other than Richard Petty to win more than three.”

Petty has won seven NASCAR championships--and seven Daytona 500s.

“It makes me very proud to be where I am with only the king having won more,” Earnhardt said of Petty. “I have maybe 15 more years of racing ahead of me and who knows, maybe I’ll catch Petty. But even if I do, he’ll always be the king as far as I’m concerned.”

Earnhardt also won the International Race of Champions and The Winston, a nonpoints all-star race, plus the Busch pole award.

This year, after the Busch Clash and the Twin 125s, the black Chevy No. 3 remains the intimidator. It’s not just that Earnhardt wins, it’s the way he wins.

After Earnhardt had passed 13 cars in the first two laps to take charge on the Busch Clash last Sunday, Waltrip--who was not in the race--couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“He didn’t just pass those guys, he sucked their doors off, handles and all,” he marveled.

Thursday, in winning a qualifying race, Earnhardt had only two cars to pass but he got them both on the first turn of Lap 1.

He is not lacking in confidence, either.

Davey Allison, who won the pole with a lap at 195.955 m.p.h., dominated the other qualifier by winning wire-to-wire. Earnhardt was not impressed.

“I’m not worried at all (about Allison),” he said. “We’ve got our own game plan. We’re going to put a fresh engine in there after wearing the old one out running it all week and then my strategy will be the same as it always is--to get up front and stay there.”

That should be enough to concern all of the other 41 starters in the $$2.2-million Daytona 500, opening event of the 29-race Winston Cup season.

As Waltrip, who won the 500 two years ago, asked, “Did you see last year’s race? Did you see the race here last July? Were you here for the Busch Clash? Were you here Thursday (for the twin 125s)? Well, if you were, what does it tell you?

“It tells me that it’s going to be a long day for everybody else.”