Waltrip Wins Crash-Marred Daytona

Michael Waltrip picked some race for his first victory - a wild, crash-marred Daytona 500 that took the life of Dale Earnhardt Sr.

The younger brother of three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip finally took the checkered flag Sunday after 15 years and 463 races in NASCAR's top stock car series.

"This is the Daytona 500, and I won it!" he shouted in a raspy voice. "I won the Daytona 500! I can't believe it!"

The race, with two- and three-wide driving and constantly changing positions, was also interrupted by a 21-car crash that sent Tony Stewart's car flying through the air. He, too, was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion.

Waltrip took the lead 16 laps from the end of the 200-lap race at Daytona International Speedway and stayed in front, with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the elder Earnhardt protecting his flank.

Earnhardt Sr., the 1998 Daytona winner and considered the master of high-speed oval racing, was fending off challenges from Kenny Schrader and Sterling Marlin when he and Schrader made contact, sending Earnhardt's Chevrolet smashing into the fourth-turn wall.

The 49-year-old driver had to be cut from his battered car and was accompanied to the hospital by Dale Jr., who rushed to the scene of the wreck moments after following Waltrip's No. 15 Monte Carlo across the finish line.

"I could never have won without Dale Jr.," Waltrip said. "I could never have won without the belief of Dale Sr."

The younger Earnhardt, starting his second season, had a dream early in January that he was in victory lane at Daytona. He didn't make it on Sunday.

"Dale Jr. is my friend," Waltrip said. "He had a dream he won the Daytona 500 and he did. He won it for me."

A record 195,000 spectators, watching on a sunny, cool afternoon, spent most of the day on their feet as the action rarely stopped on the high-banked track.

Thanks to the aerodynamic package that NASCAR came up with to promote better racing after last year's yawner at Daytona, the 43rd version of the stock car Super Bowl produced 49 lead changes among 14 drivers. Last year, there were just nine lead changes and virtually no real racing.

The first race with the new superspeedway aeo package, last October at Talladega Superspeedway, was just as breathtaking. It had 49 lead changes and race-long action, but the drivers somehow avoided what seemed inevitable a big crash.

Not this time.

On lap 174, Stewart went flying and cars were crashing and spinning all over the back straightaway. When it was over, eight of last year's top 10 in the final points, including champion Bobby Labonte and three-time and defending Daytona winner Dale Jarrett, were knocked out of the race or had severe car damage.

"There was no getting through it. It was like a wall of cars," said Jeff Gordon, a two-time Daytona winner.

Not everyone was happy with the tight, tense racing.

"Not a lot of fun," said Jarrett, whose Ford never got into contention. "It just wasn't a good day. That's no fun for me at all. I mean, you're totally at the mercy of someone else when you get three-wide. That's not racing."

Rusty Wallace, also involved in the big crash, finished the race with a jagged piece of sheet metal sticking from the side of his car. He wound up third, followed by Ricky Rudd and pole-winner Bill Elliott in the highest finishing Dodge.

This was the official return of the automaker to NASCAR's top series after a 16-year absence. It appeared one of the new Dodge Intrepids might win the race with Burton and Marlin dominating at times.

Burton's race ended with the car on a flatbed truck after the wreck, while a punctured tire nearly ended Marlin's chances. The multi-crash accident actually helped Marlin move back into contention, but he faded at the end and wound up giving new NASCAR team owner Chip Ganassi a seventh-place finish.

Darrell Waltrip, who retired from the cockpit at the end of last season, was in the TV booth for Fox Sports, which kicked off NASCAR's new $2.8 billion, six-year contract.

He was the lone voice for most of the late laps, talking his brother home.

"Come on Mikey, you can do it," Darrell said. "Yes, just stay out front. Those guys are blocking for you. Be patient. Don't do anything stupid."

When the race ended, the elder broter said, "Man, I thought TV was going to be easy. I wish our dad was here to see this."

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