Great 3 Part Article on Earnhardt's participation in the Rolex 24 in 2001

[Lee Roy]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/rolex-24-the-final-podium-pt-1

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/rolex-24-the-final-podium-pt-2/P1

A reflection on Dale Sr.'s particpation in the 2001 Rolex 24 by his teammates. Most interesting is that after retiring from NASCAR he was going to try to tackle the Le Mans 24 in a Corvette using his own DEI engines. That would have been a big deal.

[Alexamateo]

Thanks, Look forward to part III tomorrow.

[Lee Roy]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/rolex-24-the-final-podium-pt-3/

The final installment.

[Mark in Oshawa]

What a shame we never got to see where this was all going. Dale Sr. was obviously looking for a new challenge and saw sportscar racing probably as a bit of a lark for all of 10 seconds and then he was jazzed. He did well that year, and had he not left us 10 years ago, we might have seen ole Intimidator at LeMans. Wouldn't THAT have been one hell of a story?

[Sparky1329]

What a shame we never got to see where this was all going. Dale Sr. was obviously looking for a new challenge and saw sportscar racing probably as a bit of a lark for all of 10 seconds and then he was jazzed. He did well that year, and had he not left us 10 years ago, we might have seen ole Intimidator at LeMans. Wouldn't THAT have been one hell of a story?

That would've been a hoot. Too bad we'll never know. After the passage of ten years, I still miss him.

[wedge]

That was a great read.

Dale loved his racing. He used to watch F1 on the morning of Cup races. He was a huge admirer of Mansell racing in Indycar and saw the same attacking style.

Also you may be interested to know there's a guy in the UK who owns a yellow 'Vette C5 with replica livery.

[slorydn1]

That was a great read.

Dale loved his racing. He used to watch F1 on the morning of Cup races. He was a huge admirer of Mansell racing in Indycar and saw the same attacking style.



Yep. I remember him being interviewed at whatever race track they were at the weekend Senna was killed and he was about as visably shaken as I had ever seen him on TV.

This weekend during the Rolex 24 they showed an interview of his 10 years ago after he finished a stint in the vette, and the female reporter had asked him if there was anymore road racing in his future. He had that typical Dale Earnhardt twinkle in his eye as he looked at her and reflected that the Grand Am (or whatever it was called in 2001) series would be up at Watkins Glen the weekend the Cup Series would be there, and that maybe he would need to get some more practice in so he could join 'em up there.

[BobbyC]

One thing was for sure. Dale Snr was such a racer that he, knowing his enterprises included a Chevrolet dealership, wanted to make his dealership old-fashioned, right down to supporting motorsport. It would have been different to see a Richie Gilmore-built LSx engine running 200 MPH through Mulsanne. But Dale knew how to sell cars, and to see Danny Lawrence, Richie Gilmore, and the rest of Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies build the LS-based 302CID V8 in Grand-Am that Jimmie Johnson moonlights is ironic.

I can't shiver what would have happened if a retired Dale chose to run Le Mans. Just imagine how the Earnhardt operation would be. The Earnhardt marketing machine would have made traditional European marketing look lame.