Little E Stars in Daytona Drama

The classic Earnhardt driving style was fully in evidence Saturday night as Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated and won NASCAR’s Pepsi 400.

Streaking through the low grooves of the turns at Daytona International Speedway, then drifting high or low at will to hold off challengers--and most of all, refusing to relinquish the lead on sheer grit at times--Junior was a virtual mirror of his late father.

“There’s no one else I’d dedicate this one to,” Little E said.

When it was over, Junior emerged from the car, jumped to the hood and thrust both fists in the air, time and again. He had finished his victory lap by spinning doughnuts near the finish line, just the way his father did when he finally broke through at the Daytona 500 in 1998.

“I’ll be crying sooner or later,” Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt found himself seventh with only six laps remaining, after being shuffled back during the final flurry of pit stops on the final caution. But he stormed back up through the field as a crowd estimated at nearly 200,000 stood and roared such thunderous approval that it drowned out the cars.

With five laps to go, Earnhardt had shot to third. Then with four laps to go, he blasted past leader Johnny Benson to take the lead for good. He took it in Turn 4, not 50 feet from where his father had crashed and died on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18.

From there, Little E’s teammate, Michael Waltrip, roared up behind him and gave the aerodynamic push Earnhardt needed to hold off further challenges. Waltrip finished second, reversing the order of finish in the Daytona 500.

“The morning after the Daytona 500,” Waltrip recalled, “although we were all grieving, Dale Jr. called me. He said, ‘I was committed to you, buddy [running a support role at the finish].’ Tonight, those words kept passing through my mind.”

It was the first Winston Cup points race run at Daytona since 1978 without Dale Earnhardt. The black No. 3 was missing, but the red-and-white No. 8 brought the crowd to its feet often, the way the old man used to.

After the race, sixth-place finisher Tony Stewart was severely punished by NASCAR for breaking a strict racing rule and ignoring a black flag in the final laps.

Stewart, who drew the black flag for driving below the yellow line, was docked 20 positions, costing him 65 points in the standings.

The only major crash was a 10-car pileup with 18 laps remaining. Rookie Kurt Busch tapped Mike Skinner from behind to start the melee, which took pole-sitter Sterling Marlin, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt’s replacement, Kevin Harvick, out of contention.

None of the drivers involved was seriously injured--even Skinner, whose Chevrolet popped the wall head-on. Skinner and 32 other drivers in the 43-car field were wearing either HANS or Hutchens head-restraint devices. This was a turnaround in concessions to safety since the Daytona 500, when only seven drivers wore head restraints.

Earnhardt Jr. remains one of the few holdouts, even though his father died of head-whip basilar skull fracture. And Junior still wears an open-face helmet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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