Unforgettable 2001 marked by tragedy, triumph
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
December 21, 2001
12:27 PM EST (1727 GMT)
ATLANTA -- "We've lost Dale Earnhardt."
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Dale Earnhardt
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That simple, yet infinitely profound statement, solemnly uttered from Mike Helton's trembling lips on Feb. 18, 2001, will forever mark the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season.
Earnhardt's death -- which occurred in a vicious crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500 -- immediately changed the face of NASCAR forever. It spurred a relentless pursuit of optimum driver safety and made "HANS" and "Hutchens" household words, and provided an abrupt changing of the guard among NASCAR's elite drivers.
Earnhardt's namesake joined the fold. So did his successor. One of his countless apprentices made a rousing return to prominence, and everyone he touched during an illustrious career made a concerted effort to keep his memory at the forefront of the collective NASCAR mindset.
Take Matt Kenseth. Kenseth completed the 2000 season by winning the coveted rookie of the year honors, and entered 2001 poised to contend for Victory Lane on a regular basis and a top-10 finish in the overall standings.
He never got to the winner's circle and finished a fruitless and oft-stressful campaign 13th in the final standings with just four top-5 finishes. Still, the loss of Earnhardt and the Sept. 11 attacks far outweigh any racing-related tribulation.
"When you have an awful season like we did, it makes you look at the bigger picture," said Kenseth, driver of Jack Roush's No. 17 Ford. "There were so many significant events that changed the sport and the world, it just made the little things look totally minute. Just to name a few, starting off the year losing another competitor and friend, Dale Earnhardt cast a dark cloud over NASCAR for the whole season."
It certainly did. But the competitors and teams pushed on, and the 35 races that followed produced amazing competition throughout the marathonish slate.
In the coming days, NASCAR.com will take a look back at the most significant occurrences during the 2001 campaign, and a look ahead at what's to come in 2002 -- a year that promises to be integral in NASCAR's continuing growth.
"We didn't start off very good in Daytona with Dale Earnhardt's passing, but all of the television contract brought a lot of support and exposure to the sport," said Bill France Jr., NASCAR chairman of the board.
"We've been sidetracked quite a bit, had that big study going on concerning that safety issue. You'll never get it perfect. It's hard to make that happen, but you don't want to quit trying either. You need to keep climbing the mountain."
NEW WINNERS
From the moment Michael Waltrip scored his first career victory on that fateful day in Daytona - snapping a 462-race winless drought in the process -- there was an aura that it could be a special year. By the time Robby Gordon collected his first career Winston Cup win at New Hampshire some 10 months later, 19 different drivers had reached the winner's circle, five for the first time in their careers.
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Michael Waltrip
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Aside from Waltrip and Gordon, Elliott Sadler used fuel mileage tactics and an amazing set of Goodyears to win at Bristol in April, earning his first trip to The Winston in the process. In October, Ricky Craven held off a furious four-lap charge from Dale Jarrett to win at Martinsville and exorcise demons from the past.
And in the best race of the year, eventual rookie of the year winner Kevin Harvick edged eventual champion Jeff Gordon at the start/finish line by a miniscule six-thousandths of a second, nearly mirroring the same race the year before when Earnhardt out muscled Bobby Labonte to claim victory by one-hundredth of a second.
Harvick's rousing victory at Atlanta -- coming just one week after a Las Vegas marriage to DeLana Linville -- served as an emotional Band-Aid for an NASCAR community still reeling from Earnhardt's death.
"There aren't really any words that can describe what kind of year we've had," Harvick said. "We've had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But everyone at RCR is extremely strong. They've got to be, because they're led by the strongest man imaginable, Richard Childress.
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Kevin Harvick
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"I think the fact that we've done something no one else has done is an accomplishment in itself, and it says a lot for the organization and the people in it. I learned a lot and basically got two years of experience in one. But, you couldn't pay me enough money to do it again. I'll just stick to one full-time series a year and play when I want in the others."
COMING OF AGE
While Harvick's excellence helped grieving Earnhardt fans, the real healer came on July 7 at Daytona, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. completely dominated the Pepsi 400 to earn the first of three victories in 2001, and stake his claim to throne of the Earnhardt dynasty on the very track that claimed his father's life.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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"I'm proud of how well we did. We pulled together and we all worked as a real team," said Junior of his performance in 2001. "I think Tony (Eury) Sr. gets a lot of the credit for that. He's a guy that you want to win for, you want to work hard for, and I think he did a great job this year of keeping us all together.
"People forget that my dad and Tony went back almost three decades together, so it was a case where he was as torn up about everything as anyone. I can't wait for the new season to start because I think we're just going to be that much better as a group. We're going to be in the hunt from day one."
For certain, Junior established his position among the Winston Cup Series' elite talents -- and forces to be reckoned with in 2002. Likewise for Harvick and Tony Stewart -- two brash young guns who are hungry for a title. Sterling Marlin, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Burton were all top-10 finishers as well, and promise to be championship contenders again in 2002.
HEAD AND NECK RESTRAINTS
Stewart, the winner of three races and the second-place finisher in the overall standings, took particular offense to NASCAR's mandate of head and neck restraints prior to the October event in Talladega, Ala. -- yet another repercussion of Earnhardt's passing.
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Tony Stewart
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Stewart has since relented, and continues to search for a restraint system that is both comfortable and functional. The HANS and Hutchens devices are as prevalent in the garage area as shocks, springs and sheet metal. New safety technology is being researched daily, and NASCAR has opened a research and development center in Conover, N.C., to bolster that effort.
NOT SO GOODYEAR
Stewart's teammate, Bobby Labonte, struggled regain his championship form of 2000. After a four-win campaign a year ago in which he amazingly finished all but nine laps and won his first career championship, Labonte and the No. 18 crew struggled to get a handle on the new generation Goodyear tire, resulting in a two-win year and a sixth-place points finish this season.
A RETURN TO PROMINENCE
Labonte's troubles made way for Gordon, who by age 28 had already accumulated three Winston Cup championships, but had experienced a pair of subpar campaigns since the departure of crew chief Ray Evernham.
Following Evernham's abrupt exit midway through the 1999 season, the venerable No. 24 Chevrolet program took a downward course. After finishing third that year, Gordon summoned longtime Petty Enterprises crew chief Robbie Loomis to head up the former Rainbow Warriors.
It wasn't a quick fix, mind you. Gordon finished ninth in the standings in 2000 -- his worst effort since his rookie year in 1993 -- and the glory days of Gordon's past seemed a distant memory.
Not anymore.
Gordon entered 2001 with humble aspirations -- a return to the top five. He steam-rolled that goal, running away with his fourth career championship by some 376 points over second place Stewart. Gordon won six times in 2001, including a crucial back-to-back effort at midseason when he won at Watkins Glen and Indianapolis in consecutive weeks.
"I think each championship you win, you appreciate it more," Gordon said. "Each one is harder, so each one means more and more. This one is definitely the most meaningful of my career. This year reminds me so much of 1995.
"In '95, nobody, including ourselves probably, expected us to come out and battle for championship. Yet, with hard work and determination we made it happen. Once we got on a roll, like at Vegas, or Indy, or The Winston, that really motivated our team and kept the confidence level up to go on and win the championship."
And off into the sunset he rode, beautiful bride on his arm, $4.6-odd million in his bank account, gleam of confidence in his eye. He summed it all up well during his champion's speech in New York last month.
"While this was a great year for us and our team, it was a very tough year for our sport and our country," Gordon said. "For NASCAR, the year started with the huge loss of Dale. And that loss has been there all year long. We'll never forget what he brought to NASCAR and how he helped the sport reach new heights. He was a friend to so many and a great competitor.
"For me personally, I learned an awful lot from him on and off the track and I'll never forget it."
None of us will. 2001 was a year to remember.
NASCAR BUSCH SERIES
There was but one story in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2001 -- that of Harvick's utter dominance and commitment to his program.
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Greg Biffle
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Fresh off a rookie of the year campaign, Harvick stormed into 2001 with blinders on. Nothing but the championship was good enough. And despite be summoned to take over for Earnhardt in the Winston Cup Series, Harvick remained faithful to his crew, his owner and to ACDelco in the Busch Series.
He went on to notch five wins and 20 top-five finishes and clinched his first championship by 124 points over Jeff Green. The 33-race schedule produced plenty of drama, including victories by first-time winners Hank Parker Jr. and Ryan Newman, and the emergence of fiery newcomer Greg Biffle.
Biffle, the 2000 Craftsman Truck Series champion, tied Harvick's win total in 2001 -- not to mention his tenacity on the race track. With the departure of Harvick and Green in 2002, look for Biffle to emerge as the lead contender for the championship.
CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
Two-time Craftsman Truck Series title-holder Jack Sprague entered the 2001 season with hopes of becoming the second three-time champion in CTS competition. He managed to do so, on the strength of four wins and series-leading 15 top-fives in 25 races.
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Jack Sprague
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Sprague edged veteran Ted Musgrave by 73 points to nab the championship, despite the fact that Musgrave tallied a series-high seven victories. Musgrave joined rookie Scott Riggs in a landmark year for Ultra Motorsports, a year in which the two teams combined 12 victories and 27 top-fives between them.
Riggs' stellar performance -- leading the points for quite some time before finishing fifth overall -- landed him one of the most coveted rides in all of racing -- the No. 10 ppc Racing Ford in the Busch Series, formerly driven by Jeff Green to the most dominant season Busch Series history.
Rick Hendrick will move both of his Truck teams -- those of Sprague and Ricky Hendrick -- to the Busch Series for 2002, so look for Musgrave to take the crown. Robert Pressley will be a player, too, in Bobby Hamilton's No. 18 Dodge, formerly driven by Joe Ruttman.
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