DALE EARNHARDT’S LONG-AWAITED, IMMENSELY POPULAR DAYTONA 500 WIN IN 1998

ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR WINS IN NASCAR HISTORY TOOK PLACE AT the 1998 Daytona 500 when Dale Earnhardt – in his 20th attempt to win The Great American Race – finally prevailed, scoring the victory in his iconic black No. 3 Chevrolet of Richard Childress Racing.

Earnhardt, who had lost this race in just about every way imaginable in his 19 previous tries, showed up at The World Center of Racing with one of the fastest cars as he so often did, but unlike in his previous attempts to win NASCAR’s most prestigious event, nothing went terribly wrong. Earnhardt led 107 of 200 laps, taking the top spot for good with 61 laps to go. Despite facing strong challenges from the likes of Rusty Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and teammate Mike Skinner, Earnhardt never cracked under the pressure as he held off a late charge from Labonte to take the yellow flag and the white flag together and be assured of the victory (back then, the entire final lap could be run under caution).

Earnhardt later celebrated by spinning through the frontstretch infield grass before pulling down pit road where he was congratulated by at least one member of practically every team – a truly once-in-a-lifetime type of spectacle that you had to see to believe.