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Lasting memory Earnhardt's crash clouds drivers' return to Daytona
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ever since it opened in 1959, Daytona International Speedway has been a place where a victory -- or simply a strong showing -- could build careers and earn bragging rights. Thanks to restricted engines, however, racing on the historic 2 1/2-mile, high-banked oval has become more tense and treacherous than ever. And the reminders of the death of superstar Dale Earnhardt in a crash on the final turn of the final lap of February's Daytona 500 has made returning here for the July 7 Pepsi 400 even harder. Traditionally, the July race at Daytona is not only the midway point in the long season, it's a family week in which drivers and crews bring their wives and children along for some sun and fun in the resort city. "It's going to be a difficult time this time," says 1999 Winston Cup champ Dale Jarrett. "Normally, going through the tunnel there, I get a really good feeling because I've been fortunate to have a lot of success and I look forward to going to Daytona and racing.
"I don't think that's going to be the case. I don't think I've going to be thinking about the success that I've had there because I'm sure there will be other emotions. It's going to be a tough time for all of us, but it's something we have to work through." Carburetor restrictor plates, required by NASCAR to dampen horsepower to keep the 3,400-pound stock cars under 200 mph on the tracks in Daytona and Talladega -- the two longest and fastest ovals on the circuit -- made racing uncomfortable and difficult for the drivers even before Earnhardt's death. Rules changes last summer gave the cars a little extra throttle response -- which the drivers had begged for -- but it also made the racing even tighter and more difficult, with nearly constant two- and three-wide freight trains of cars throughout the long races. "You can't take a deep breath," says Jeff Gordon, the current series leader and one of the most successful racers in recent years at both tracks. "After the races at Daytona and Talladega, I've had a gigantic headache. It's just constant tension. It's not much fun." The drivers got through the Talladega race in April without any serious wrecks or injuries, but the fact that this is the first time back in Daytona since Earnhardt's death is weighing heavily on most minds. "I'm just going to try not to think about it," says Jeremy Mayfield, echoing a lot of other drivers. "I'm just going to try to block it out and go. It's going to be weird, but what do you do? Everybody has to deal with what happened in their own way."
Jeff Burton is more concerned with the realities of racing in Daytona than with the memories that might be dredged up this week. "I've been asked a lot about going back to where Earnhardt got killed, but I don't look at it that way," says Burton. "I don't associate the racetrack with the place where Dale Earnhardt got killed at. "All the concerns that everybody had going to Talladega [in April], everybody still has going to Daytona, even though we got through Talladega without a wreck. That was luck." In February, before the Earnhardt wreck, there was a typical restrictor-plate racing crash involving 18 of the 43 cars in the field. "There's no reason to think that won't happen again," says Burton. "The rules still bunch us up so much that one mistake by one person is all it takes." Elliott Sadler, who got his first career win earlier this season, says, "We still have a job to do. We have to race and we know it's going to be dangerous. It's going to be bumper-to-bumper and three-wide pretty much the whole race, but we've got to do the best job we can to figure out how to win. "I mean, it's still a great race to win. It's Daytona."
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