Greatest Day Becomes the Saddest for Michael Waltrip

Michael Waltrip’s joy lasted only moments Sunday. He won the Daytona 500, drove to Victory Lane and saw that the man who’d put him there--his car owner, Dale Earnhardt--”wasn’t there,” he said.

“Kenny Schrader was there in Victory Lane to give me the heads-up about Dale--that he’d been . . . injured,” Waltrip said.

Waltrip was winless in his Winston Cup career--16 seasons and 462 races--then suddenly Sunday, with enormous help from Earnhardt, he’d soared to the pinnacle of NASCAR. But by the time of the winner’s news conference, he was somberly candid: “I’d rather be anywhere right now but here,” he said. “The only reason I won this race was Dale Earnhardt.”

Seconds before Waltrip took the checkered flag, the car Earnhardt was driving slammed into the outside retaining wall in Turn 4 of Daytona International Speedway, killing the legendary seven-time Winston Cup champion who had, in the twilight of his career, turned benefactor to other drivers.

“He wasn’t just my owner. He was my friend,” Waltrip said. “My heart is hurting.”

Earnhardt’s fatal crash, in the last turn of the last lap, cast a sudden but enormous pall over what had been one of the most competitive Daytona 500s in memory--and a race that had yielded, in Waltrip, the biggest Cinderella story since Tiny Lund won this race in 1963.

At the fateful moment, Earnhardt was running third, just behind his son, Dale Jr. Until that moment, the race appeared to be coming down to a 1-2-3 finish for the “Earnhardt Connection.” Waltrip, younger brother of just-retired NASCAR star Darrell Waltrip, had labored in his brother’s shadow since 1985, struggling with lesser teams in the wake of Darrell’s 84-win, three-championship career.

Then, at the end of last season, Earnhardt gave Michael Waltrip the monumental break of his career, hiring Michael as a teammate of Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Park at Dale Earnhardt Inc. Earnhardt himself drove cars owned by his longtime friend Richard Childress.

The Earnhardt connection, all in Chevrolets, had been roaring toward even fuller domination of the race until Park was caught up in a 19-car crash on the backstretch with only 25 laps to go in the 200-lap event. Each of the four drivers--Earnhardt, Earnhardt Jr., Park and Waltrip--led the race.

Earnhardt, Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip escaped the first accident that took out contenders such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett. Stewart was the only driver seriously injured and was taken to Halifax Medical Center with a concussion.

After the restart from a red-flag period caused by the massive wreck, the remaining Earnhardt trio took command, challenged only by Sterling Marlin in a Dodge.

But Earnhardt seized the lead from Marlin on Lap 183, then relinquished it to Waltrip one lap later, and from there--with both Earnhardts riding escort to fend off challengers--Waltrip wasn’t headed.

“I did a good job of protecting the lead, but I was fortunate that the guy riding behind me was my teammate, and his dad was right behind him,” Waltrip said.

And that was as much as Waltrip could bring himself to say about what should have been the happiest race of his life.

Abruptly, he got up from the news conference and said, “I’m going to go now. I’m just so thankful for what he did for me. And this is how it turns out, so it doesn’t all seem right to me.”