No. 3 in Their Hearts

The ghost of Dale Earnhardt hangs over Daytona International Raceway like a black shroud. With a big No. 3 on it.

It has been nine days short of a year since the Intimidator crashed and was killed in the last turn of the last lap of the Daytona 500, but his image, his memory and his aura can be felt everywhere inside the 2 1/2-mile track he loved, and everywhere else in this Florida beach town that is home to NASCAR.

The race for the 2002 Daytona 500 starts today with qualifying time trials. The two fastest cars will start on the front row Feb. 17. All others will be qualifying for the Gatorade Twin 125s next Thursday.

However, in the vast infield, where the hard-core fans set up housekeeping for SpeedWeeks, there is a sea of No. 3s seen on caps, shirts, race jackets, flags, bumper stickers and even dirty windshields with “3” scrawled across them.

There is no No. 3 in the race.

That was Earnhardt’s number, and it is owned by Richard Childress, who provided Earnhardt with race cars since 1981. He won six of his seven championships in Chevrolets with that number.

(He drove a No. 2 when he won his first championship for Rod Osterlund in 1980.)

Childress has said that as long as he owns No. 3 it will not appear in a Winston Cup race. He selected No. 29 for the car’s replacement with Kevin Harvick the driver.

However, an Earnhardt driving No. 3 will be there next week. Dale Jr. will have that number in the Busch Grand National on Feb. 16. But the car won’t be black, the old Earnhardt color.

Besides all the items with the big “3,” a remarkable number of fans also wear T-shirts, golf shirts and expensive race jackets with Earnhardt’s name.

“You would think that after a year, the demand for Earnhardt stuff would slacken off, but it still rates with our best sellers,” said Jerry Randolph, an infield vendor. “It and the No. 8 [Earnhardt Jr.] and the 24 [four-time champion Jeff Gordon] are the ones the public keeps buying.”

In a dramatic dedication Thursday in the rain, a nine-foot-high statue of Earnhardt was unveiled in front of Daytona USA. His racing gloves, made of cast silicone bronze, sit on a wall behind the statue. Alongside the gloves is a penny, which represents the penny given Earnhardt by a young fan for “luck” the day he won his only Daytona 500 in 1998.

A new foot bridge, crossing International Speedway Boulevard in front of the speedway, was also named the Earnhardt Bridge.

“I wonder when it will all end,” Childress has said of the way the Earnhardt adulation has continued. “Maybe I shouldn’t wonder, though. There are times when I’m in the garage and I look up and swear I see that mustache and that grin of his coming around the corner. It’s almost eerie.”

The one who has been hit hardest by the impact is Dale Jr., the 27-year-old son whose charm comes from the fact that he has some of his dad’s rough edges, coupled with a modern, hip attitude toward life. It has been wearing on him, though, being asked time and again, “What would your father have said after you won the July race here?” or “Do you think you would have won if your father had been in the race?” or “What did your mother [stepmother Teresa] say to you after you won the Pepsi 400?”

In racing’s first trip back to Daytona after Earnhardt’s death, the Pepsi 400 was won by Junior, with Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip second.

Questions like that, repeated over and over, can get awfully wearing. So it was not much of a surprise when Dale Jr., asked what he most looked forward to this month in Daytona, replied, “Going home.”

It was obvious he was enjoying the shock impact his answer had. A few seconds later, he displayed his modern-style Earnhardt grin and continued:

“Actually, I can’t wait. A lot of people keep asking me about my coming back here and the anniversary of my father’s crash, but I feel like I dealt with a lot of those emotions when I came back here last July. I’m here to race, so let’s throw the green flag.

“I love this track and I love racing here. It has always meant a lot to me and it means even more since last February. I know you’ve heard me complain about how long the season is and how short the off-season is, but I’ve had enough of laying around. I want to go out and race.”

Young Earnhardt will get his chance Sunday when he will be one of 22 drivers in the Budweiser Shootout, a race for last year’s pole winners or previous winners of the Budweiser Shootout, once known as the Busch Clash.

“This is such a fun race, and I think it’s cool that I’m in it for the second time. The Bud guys tease me because once or twice I called it the Busch Clash, but that was because I watched it so many times that was its name when my dad won.”

Earnhardt won it six times. No one else has won more than twice.

If you think you’re seeing things when Dale Jr. appears on the screen during the Winter Olympics at the wheel of a Zamboni, don’t check your glasses. It’s him.

It isn’t Salt Lake City, it’s the Greensboro Coliseum, which was transformed into an Olympic hockey venue last month. Earnhardt Jr. was scheduled to shoot an on-air promotional spot with himself as an Olympic Zamboni driver.

“They had a stunt double for me to do the driving, but as long as I was there I told them I might as well drive,” Junior said.

In the skit, between hockey games, one rink manager says to another, “I don’t know how we’re going to get this thing turned around for this one.” The other manager answers, “Don’t worry about it, I made a phone call.”

Whereupon, Earnhardt Jr. appears driving the Zamboni. As he pits the machine, he tells the Salt Lake Olympic pit crew, “It’s a little bit loose in the corners.”

Today, it’s back to business. Qualifying consists of two laps, with the best time of the two setting the time.

Jimmie Johnson, the rookie from El Cajon who drives a Chevrolet owned by Jeff Gordon, continued to lead the speed charts after practice Friday. An off-road racing product who has driven in only three Winston Cup races, he had a lap of 185.033 mph.

“Our game plan was to take every practice session as hard as we could and see what happened,” Johnson said. “Everybody is going to show their hands a little more tomorrow, I think. Some of the guys were stepping it up this afternoon.

“The way the team is set up, I’ll be able to work side-by-side with Jeff [Gordon] all year at every track. Any questions that I have about the car or about the track, I’ll get honest answers from Jeff and [teammates] Terry Labonte and Jerry Nadeau. The resources speak for themselves.

“You know what the No. 24 has been able to do with all their equipment and hopefully that’s where the No. 48 team will end up also. I’ve been pinching myself ever since I signed on [with Gordon and Hendricks Motorsports] in September of 2000. So I’ve got welts all over.”

Gordon, who is making his debut as a Cup car owner while continuing to drive for Rick Hendrick Motorsports, was third fastest at 184.505.

Ricky Rudd, in a Ford, slipped between the two Chevrolets at 184.740.

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TODAY

First-round qualifying for the Daytona 500 (two laps)

FEB. 17

9:30 a.m. start of the 44th Daytona 500 (200 laps, 500 miles)