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Monday, February 26
Park holds off Labonte for DEI win
Associated Press
Results
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- With tears in his eyes, Steve Park
honored his late boss by driving a Dale Earnhardt car to victory
Monday in the Dura Lube 400.
|  | | Steve Park honored Dale Earnhart by waving an Earnhardt hat as he took his victory lap after winning the Dura Lube 400. |
Park held off Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte by two
car-lengths in the rain-delayed race at North Carolina Speedway.
"I'm just glad it was Bobby behind me," Park said after the
second win of his career. "If it wasn't him, we'd probably both
have wrecked. It's been a tough week, and this is just a dream
finish."
Park, who started next to polesitter Jeff Gordon on the front
row, was a contender throughout the race, which began Sunday and
was postponed by rain after just 51 of the 393 laps.
It was a fitting end to an event that began with a frightening
first-lap crash by Park's teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Three turns after the race started, a battered car and a hushed
crowd provided a reminder of the previous week's tragedy in
Daytona.
Earnhardt Jr. walked away from this one, just seven days after
his father died in an eerily similar crash on the last lap of the
Daytona 500.
The younger Earnhardt was bruised but escaped serious injury,
limping away from the accident.
"I hate it for Junior because this would have really took his
mind off it for quite a while, just getting one race behind him,"
said Tony Eury Jr., a cousin and a member of his crew. "But when
he come in the garage area, we all just grabbed him and told him,
'Don't worry about it. We always got next week."'
The 26-year-old Earnhardt, coming off the toughest week of his
life, appeared to shrug off the mishap, even though it occurred on
the first lap of racing since his father was killed.
"Somebody got into me," Earnhardt Jr. told his team over the
radio. "I was really ready to go racing. We'll be all right,
guys."
Earnhardt Jr. was tapped from behind and slammed into the wall
between turns 3 and 4.
Asked if he was
injured, he smiled and said, "The lap belt was a little too tight.
I'm a little bruised up. I'll be OK."
Earnhardt Jr., in his second full season of driving on the
Winston Cup circuit, started 25th in the 43-car field. The start of
the race was delayed 1 hour, 33 minutes by rain, and later was
postponed until Monday because of the weather.
The race resumed with the sun shining brightly -- but without
Earnhardt Jr. The cars were restarted in single file with the Dodge
of Stacy Compton in front of the Chevrolets of Gordon and Park.
Moments before he crashed, Earnhardt Jr. was in a tightly
bunched pack of cars heading into the third turn on the 1.017-mile
speedway. Robby Gordon swerved down the banked track in front of
Earnhardt Jr., who slowed slightly. Rookie Ron Hornaday Jr. then
bumped the rear of Earnhardt's Chevrolet, sending it into the car
driven by Kenny Wallace and then into the concrete wall at an
angle.
In all, six drivers were involved in Sunday's wreck, including
Jimmy Spencer, Mike Wallace and Hut Stricklin. Only Earnhardt Jr.
and Kenny Wallace were unable to return to the race.
"It was just like a traffic jam," Kenny Wallace said.
"Everybody was wanting the bottom of the race track and somebody
got into the back of Earnhardt and got it starting. It was a bad
deal."
In the crash that killed the elder Earnhardt in the
season-opening race, the seven-time champion bumped with Sterling
Marlin, bounced into Kenny Schrader and hit the wall at 180 mph.
Earnhardt died instantly of head injuries.
A NASCAR doctor said Earnhardt might have survived if one of his
two lap belts hadn't broken. NASCAR is investigating what caused
the belt to come apart.
Before Sunday's crash, tributes honored the elder Earnhardt as
one of the greatest stock car racers in history.
Most of the drivers and crewmen wore black, red and silver caps
with Earnhardt's No. 3 on the front. The members of the Dale
Earnhardt Inc. team, which fields cars for Earnhardt Jr., Park and
Daytona winner Michael Waltrip, stood on the pit wall during the
national anthem holding the caps aloft in a salute to their former
boss.
"There's a lot of people here wanting to honor Dale," Gordon
said. "We wanted to put these hats on as a little tribute, to let
him know everyone's thinking about him and wishing he was here."
Darrell Waltrip, a retired three-time champion and a longtime
friend, asked the 60,000 spectators to stand for a moment of
silence, then said a brief prayer.
"You wonder how can we go out and race today? We do it knowing
Dale would want us to," Darrell Waltrip said.
Signs and banners honoring The Intimidator were scattered
throughout the grandstands and around the speedway grounds. Many in
the crowd wore hats, shirts or jackets emblazoned with the No. 3.
There wasn't much racing once the accident was cleaned up. A
light rain began during that caution and kept the cars running
under a yellow flag until lap 32.
Pole-winner Gordon kept the lead until lap 44, when Park moved
past to a giant roar from the crowd.
Moments later, rain began again and the leaders pitted, leaving
Stacy Compton out front.
But the rain that began as a sprinkle turned into a downpour
that brought out a red flag. After a 20-minute wait, NASCAR
postponed the rest of the race.
Joe Gibbs, who owns the cars driven by defending series champion
Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart, said the postponement was tough on
everybody.
"You've got to be resilient," the former Washington Redskins
coach said. "You've got to be the kind of team that can bounce
back, get ready to go tomorrow and, hopefully, have a good day."
Earnhardt Jr. must wait for his chance next Sunday in Las Vegas. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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