20 years ago, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won Daytona's summer race months after dad's tragic death

Two decades later, the pain still exists. 

Time has helped, but not a lot. Living in the moment, as Michael Waltrip says, seems to help more than anything else. 

It's what Waltrip didn't want to do in the hours after the 2001 Daytona 500, where racing icon Dale Earnhardt died in a tragic crash.

And it's all he wanted to do five months later in the days following the Pepsi 400, won by Earnhardt's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

"It gave us a night to smile," Waltrip said. "I was gonna be living with Dale (Sr.) being my friend, my car owner.

"Losing him like we did, and then being able to celebrate like we did … it’s a crazy story." 

'Revenge on Daytona' 

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Daytona this weekend for its annual summer race, which was moved from July to the final Saturday in August last season. What was the Pepsi 400 is now the Coke Zero Sugar 400.

Twenty years ago, Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave the sport one of the most iconic images in its history, with the two parked next to each other in the Daytona International Speedway ballfield, between the main grandstands and Pit Road, embraced in a hug five months in the making. 

Earnhardt Jr. had just won the 2001 Pepsi 400. Waltrip, Junior's teammate at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, finished second. 

"It seems like a lifetime ago," Earnhardt Jr. said. "When I think about that race, it’s as storybook as it can get. It’s magical, even after all these years I still watch video of it, watch the celebration, and it’s still so much fun to relive that."

Hard to believe, Earnhardt Jr. said, that his Pepsi 400 victory occurred just five months after his dad died in a Turn 4 crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. 

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Waltrip won that 500. Earnhardt Jr. finished second. Earnhardt Sr. was running third, and blocking for his two drivers, when Sterling Marlin got into his left-rear quarter panel, then Ken Schrader made contact, with Earnhardt's famed No. 3 Chevy eventually slamming the concrete wall at a near-head-on angle.  

The 2001 Pepsi 400, held three days after the Fourth of July, was the first race back at Daytona since the 500 where Earnhardt lost his life. 

"We had an off-weekend before this race, so me and my friends would always go down early and spend 5-6 days running around Daytona raising hell," Earnhardt Jr. said with a laugh. "So, we did that again, and we had a lot of fun."

Waltrip planned to raise hell, too. Not down at Daytona Beach's Ocean Deck restaurant and bar, though. 

"I went there with a purpose," Waltrip remembered. "I looked at it like I was going to get revenge on Daytona. Daytona took my friend and I’m gonna go take that win and celebrate his life."

Lessons from Dale Earnhardt

By the end of his career in 2018, Earnhardt Jr. would be known as the sport's top restrictor-plate racer — meaning the best at the two fastest tracks, Daytona and Talladega.

Going into the 2001 summer race, though, he was just a 25-year-old with two career wins — none on superspeedways like Daytona. 

"I leaned on dad a lot," said Earnhardt Jr., who would finish his career with 10 wins between Daytona and Talladega.

"Watching dad race plate races for years, he had this knack for creating momentum for his car, keeping it going, and then using the cars around him to keep that momentum up. It was always leapfrogging for dad."

Junior would need to do just that in the final laps of the 2001 Pepsi 400.

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Coming to a single-file restart with six to go, Earnhardt Jr. lined up sixth in line, with Waltrip stuck back in 14th after a bad pit-stop. 

"I slid through it," Waltrip remembered. "I was so pissed because I had screwed up, and I didn't even know where Dale was."

Earnhardt Jr. had six laps to get to the front, and his teammate, at least for the time being, would be no help. 

"I was scared because we’d lost track position and I didn’t know how quickly we’d get back up there," he said. "If you watch (Crew Chief) Tony Sr.’s interview from atop the pit box, he’s already saying, 'Well, they knew who had the best car.' He’s already thinking we might lose.

"I was probably thinking that same thing."

But it took less than a lap for Earnhardt Jr. to work his way up to third, passing Tony Stewart, Kenny Schrader and Jeremy Mayfield in order.

On the backstretch of the next lap, he passed second-place Dave Blaney. One turn later, he took the lead for good, passing Johnny Benson going down the front stretch. 

It took less than two laps to go from sixth to first. But that was nothing, Earnhardt Jr. said, compared to his dad.

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"He used to start last in the Busch Clash and then be leading after four laps," he laughed. "The way he used all those tricks as he approached each car, it was just fun to watch. When I got in the car, and started doing the things I saw him do, and then I saw how the car reacted to that, it was like a light bulb went off.

"I was like, 'Oh, wow. So that’s how this works.' "

The trick, Earnhardt Jr. admitted, sounds simple. Back then, though, it was rarely used. 

"You had to side-draft," he said. "It's so common today, but it wasn't in 2001. If you watch real close, going down the back straightaway, I’m on the outside. I think Jeremy Mayfield pulled up behind me. The way my car reacted, it shot me forward and then I side-drafted the No. 10 car (Benson) to continue that momentum. I slowed the 10 down.

"If I don’t side-draft the 10, me and him probably stay side-by-side off Turn 4. That’s a good example of what dad would do."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins 2001 Pepsi 400

As Earnhardt Jr. was taking the lead, Waltrip was meticulously working his way through the field. With two to go, he finally found his teammate, sliding under Bobby Labonte for second and getting right to Earnhardt Jr.'s bumper coming to the white flag. 

"I had a big run," Waltrip remembered. "I had a decision to make, and it had to be made at 190 mph in about two seconds. I honestly don’t know if I could’ve passed Dale or not — maybe If I’d had known I could’ve gotten it done for sure, I would’ve done it. All I knew was I could get beside him, and that would've just hung us both up.

"So I made the decision to pull in behind him and push him, because that’s what he did for me in February."

In the moment, though, there were no guarantees for Earnhardt Jr.

"I didn't feel comfortable until I got off Turn 4," he said. "I know me and Mikey were teammates and we’d work together, but I still don’t know what he wanted to do. If he gets a monster run, I'd have a hard time believing (he wouldn’t try to pass me), because I myself would take it if I was in his shoes."

The run never came (at least not one strong enough), and Earnhardt Jr. took the checkered flag. Waltrip followed behind in second. 

'A reason to smile'

A few minutes later, the two parked their cars in the middle of the grass below the start/finish line. Both pit-crews ran out to the infield to join the celebration, as did Earnhardt's old No. 3 crew. Eventually, both drivers were wrapped in a hug atop Waltrip's car, with flashbulbs lighting up the sky and celebratory cheers ringing from all corners.

It was a party in front of 100,000 fans, and that was the point. 

"When I won that race, I was not going to Victory Lane," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I used to despise how mechanical that was. I didn’t want anything to do with going over there and being told what to do next. I pulled onto the front straightaway to do the burnout and I thought, I'm getting the hell out of here.

"I wanna get on this roof, I wanna see these people in the stands, I wanna hear them, I wanna look at them. I wanted to do what felt natural and it was so spur-of-the-moment, shoot-from-the-hip. Everything we did there is what we felt like doing in that moment."

Of course, with the moment, came the reminder. 

"That's when I first thought about Dale," Waltrip admitted, "because you’re finally able to get out of driver-mode and realize the special moment that’s happening. I don’t think there’s ever been a moment in NASCAR quite like it. You wake up the next afternoon and realize that while it really didn't fix anything, it gave you a reason to smile. 

"It's been 20 years, but I remember that night like it was yesterday."

So does Earnhardt Jr., who ended the week the same way he started: by raising a little hell. 

"We went to the bus lot that night where all the drivers' buses were," he said. "A lot of people had left, and we're all standing around in big circle, about 12 of us. It's midnight, and I look to my left and Dale Jarrett walks up, grabs a beer, opens it up and sits next to me.

"I said, 'Dale Jarrett? What are you still doing here?' He said, 'I’d never miss this.' So he came over and drank a couple beers, and I'll never forget it. I looked up to Dale, because I idolized all the guys dad raced with.

"Dale was part of dad's generation, and having those guys be proud of something you’d done and be happy for you, it was such a great feeling."