Insider's View: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. describes the winning pass he made in the 2004 Daytona 500:

I was sitting there running for about six laps, and I was lifting a whole lot, trying to pack (Kurt Busch) up behind my bumper real close. Then I'd see if he could shove me up through there.

I kept doing that over and over and over and over, and I couldn't ever really get a fast enough run. Once I'd get to Tony (Stewart), really all I was doing was pushing Tony.

	Dale Earnhardt Jr.

There's a point where, if you get a fast enough run, you've got to pull out before you start to push the car in front of you or else you'll just start pushing him, like a beach ball is in-between you.

I got this run, was coming up on Tony fast. I must have really let him out there by himself for a long time because he really needed a push. I got a run on him, here I come, and it was really still in the car, so I'm thinking the only option I've got is to go to the top.

So that's really where I was headed. I was going to try to pass him on the top. So I went up to the top and he moved up, and I just cut the wheel to the left and felt the nose graze across the back bumper of his car.

I looked and I had about a foot on him, so I thought, "Well, he can't run me across the apron now. He's got to give me the position." He knew I was there, so he wasn't gonna do any kind of crazy blocking.

I drafted off the side of him through the tri-oval and I hadn't cleared him. I thought I had him cleared, so I squeezed up there, but it's the Daytona 500 -- he's gonna turn me into the fence. He ain't gonna lift.

I didn't think I had him cleared, so he comes running back down on the outside of me and I thought he was gonna go right on back by me. We went back down in the corner and he's still there.

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I'm watching, and he's still there. We come off (Turn) 2 and he had the momentum run going by me a little bit. He got clear of me, but there were some lapped cars on the inside and, I don't know why, but we didn't come down in front of me.

He was clear by about three or four inches to pull in front of me but he didn't pull in front of me. But I imagine maybe he was pulling (Busch) by me, too, to put that lapped car between us. I'm thinking, maybe, that's what he was thinking. I caught some wind off of those lapped cars on the inside. They were really slow, but I caught some wind off them and started easing back up to him.

And as soon as I got to where I could draft off the side his car, I pulled over there and didn't really mean to hit him, but I hit him a little bit. That may have helped me, as far as slowing him down, killing some of his speed.

I drafted off the side of him and turned down into (Turn) 3 as quick as I could to the bottom, to allow that shorter distance, a couple extra feet of clearance. So that helped, too.

But I could not believe I passed him by myself.

I think that, under the circumstances, it all happened exactly in the perfect places on the racetrack. If it had been anywhere else on the racetrack, it might not have happened. But due to how I drafted on him at the same time I needed to turn down in the corner, it was like it all packaged together perfectly.

If I hadn't been at that point on the racetrack, I don't know if I could have made it happen because I don't know if it would have given me the advantage I needed.

So I don't know whether I could do it again.