Just a few weeks before he was tragically killed in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt, along with son Dale Jr., had been part of the Corvette Racing team that finished second in the GTS Class and fourth overall in the Rolex 24 Hours road race at the same Daytona International Speedway.
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Earnhardt enjoyed his first and what would sadly be his only Rolex event. It was clear he had been bitten by the sports car bug. So much so that Earnhardt talked about going sports car racing once his racing days in NASCAR were done.
The elder Earnhardt had expressed to several of his friends and co-drivers in that event — Andy Pilgrim, Kelly Collins and Doug Fehan (who were all guests on this week’s Dale Jr. Download) — that he was eyeing the possibility of driving a Chevrolet Corvette to other sports car races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Fehan told a great story about Earnhardt’s desire to do more sports car racing. “This (racing in the Rolex 24) was like a seed,” he said to Dale Jr. “I think your dad looked at it as a huge opportunity.
Fehan said he believed Dale Sr. had an idea in his mind about when he planned to step away from NASCAR, and thought that timeline was relatively close to when the Rolex 24 opportunity came up. He added that Earnhardt’s overall experience — including all the testing and racing — contributed to that decision-making process.
He said, “I think that was helping fortify his decision to get out of this, that there was a new chapter to be written in his racing book and it was going to be with Corvette.
Fehan admitted that Dale Sr. had held talks with others about his decision. Recollecting how he fully supported it at that time, Fehan added, “He quite frankly said to me, ‘I’m going to do one more year of Cup, Doug, and then we’re going to go to Le Mans. I’m getting in one of these cars and we’re going to go do that 24 hours of Le Mans. I said, ‘Dale, let’s go do it.’
Fehan explained that the experience had a profound impact on Dale Sr., making him feel comfortable with the idea of eventually walking away from NASCAR. He said Earnhardt saw it as a new mountain to climb — one that completely invigorated and inspired him. According to Fehan, Earnhardt had no doubt in his mind that he could do it.
When Dale Sr. went to another racing icon for advice
There was another individual who helped inspire Earnhardt going on to compete in some of the world’s other marquee events as well, another racing icon: A.J. Foyt.
“Him and AJ were buddies,” Collins said about Earnhardt. “AJ used to talk to your dad about Le Mans and the Fords and all that stuff, and he really loved that. He was like a little kid listening to AJ is what he said.”
Pilgrim chimed in, “The enthusiasm for the whole thing, it was almost like you were talking to a 20-year-old or something. It was genuine, it really was.”
Even more than two decades after his passing, stories of Dale Sr.’s passion for racing never cease to amaze.
