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Kenny Wallace Recalls Big Contribution to Dale Earnhardt’s Final NASCAR Win in Emotional Post

Jerry Bonkowski
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Kenny Wallace (L) and Dale Earnhardt Sr. (R). Image Credits: Imagn.

Kenny Wallace (L) and Dale Earnhardt Sr. (R). Image Credits: Imagn.

With NASCAR once again returning this weekend to the biggest oval on the Cup circuit — the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway — it got veteran driver Kenny Wallace reflecting upon one of the biggest finishes of his career.

With 170,000 fans serving as witnesses, Sunday, October 15, 2000, wasn’t a win for Wallace. But his finish in the 2000 Winston 500 at ‘Dega was a close second, both literally and figuratively, as Wallace finished runner-up to Dale Earnhardt in The Intimidator’s 76th and final win of his storied Cup career.

Wallace took to X on Thursday to take a trip down memory lane. While he never won a Cup race in his the 344 starts in NASCAR’s top series in his career, Wallace did have three runner-up finishes.

But none were as famous as how he pushed Earnhardt to the win at Earnhardt’s favorite racetrack, earning a career-best 10 times at ‘Dega in his Cup career (second-best for Earnhardt were both Bristol and Atlanta, where he won nine times each).

Earnhardt came from 17th to the lead in four laps, then got a late push from behind from Wallace to propel him to the front, earning Earnhardt a $1 million bonus, finishing .119 seconds ahead of Wallace.

“It was wild,” Earnhardt recalled at the time to ESPN. Sadly, 4 ½ months later, Earnhardt would pass away in the final lap of the 2001 season-opening Daytona 500.

“I didn’t have any thought tonight that we’d have a chance of winning this race starting where we were at the (final) restart,” Earnhardt continued. “We kept working to win.

“We got on the outside, and Kenny Wallace really worked hard with us. He done a good job. I don’t think we’d have got up there without Kenny.

“Once we got together, he stayed with me and pushed me outside of them guys, and I had to beat Mike Sinner, but I had to beat him for a million bucks (the Winston 500 million dollar bonus).”

Which leaves one question: did Earnhardt ever share any of his prize bonus money with Wallace for the literally million-dollar assist he gave The Intimidator?

Post Edited By:Srijan Mandal

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

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Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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