Waltrip wins Daytona 500 for first career victory

By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
February 21, 2001
10:45 AM EST (1545 GMT)

Official Results

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Michael Waltrip broke the longest losing streak in NASCAR Winston Cup racing in the sport's biggest race when he won the 43rd Daytona 500 Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

Waltrip's No. 15 Chevrolet held off Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 8 Monte Carlo in a race to the caution with less than a quarter-mile remaining when a wild accident broke out behind their Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Chevrolets in Turns 3 and 4.

Seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, who seconds before was watching his son and his newly-hired debut driver sprint to a one-two finish, was killed instantly in the crash into the outside wall in Turn 4, according to trauma surgeon Dr. Steve Bohannon, emergency medical services director at Daytona International Speedway.

The mood in Victory Lane was more rambunctious than the mood nearly three hours later when Earnhardt's passing was announced.

"I thought it was boisterous that we thought we could win this race," Waltrip said to his brother, 1989 Daytona 500 winner Darrell Waltrip, when his elder sibling was connected via radio from the FOX TV broadcast booth. "As soon as I can find Dale Jr., I'm gonna give him a kiss. You can't win this today without help and he was it." "He had a dream he won the Daytona 500," Michael Waltrip said of his teammate, Jr.'s, well-publicized premonition. "He did -- I'm just here celebrating it."

The celebration was short-lived. At the time that he conducted his victor's interview in the press box above the main straightaway, about 6 p.m., Waltrip did not know the outcome of the accident. Earnhardt's death was announced at 7 p.m.

Waltrip, who led the final 17 laps of the race after taking the lead from Earnhardt, won in his 463rd start and his first for DEI. He averaged 161.783 mph for three hours, five minutes and 25 seconds. His margin of victory over Earnhardt Jr. was .124 seconds. He won $1,331,185 from the purse of more than $11 million.

Rusty Wallace, who recovered from losing a lap in his No. 2 Ford early in the race; Ricky Rudd in the No. 28 Ford and pole sitter Bill Elliott in the No. 9 Dodge rounded out the top-5 finishers.

"It's just unconscious," Waltrip said in an outburst of emotion, remembering his father, Leroy, who died last year. "Thank God, and thank my father. I just can't believe it. I know I never would have won it if Dale Earnhardt didn't believe in me."

With less than 25 laps to go, the race was red-flagged after an accident involving no less than 19 cars on the backstretch. Tony Stewart, whose Pontiac turned over and was struck by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Bobby Labonte in the accident, was transported directly to Halifax after complaining of shoulder pain.

Stewart was released from Halifax later in the evening suffering from a concussion after a CT scan of his head and neck and a x-ray of his left shoulder were negative.

Mike Wallace in a Ford, Sterling Marlin in a Dodge, Bobby Hamilton in a Chevrolet, Jeremy Mayfield in a Ford and Stacy Compton in a Dodge finished sixth through 10th.

The race was slowed only three times by cautions for a total of 14 laps. There were the most lead changes in the 500 since 1983, 49 among 14 drivers.

The standard post-Daytona 500 ceremony to induct Waltrip's winning car into DAYTONA USA, scheduled to take place Monday morning, has been postponed indefinitely in deference to Earnhardt's death, NASCAR director operations Kevin Triplett announced at about 8 p.m.