DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- He chased it for 20 years, enduring failures and frustrations and one infamous cut tire, patiently stalking the Daytona 500 the way his car owner stalked big game. Dale Earnhardt left this earth with more trophies than any other driver ever to compete at Daytona International Speedway, but for so long his legacy at NASCAR's marquee facility seemed to revolve around the one event he was unable to win.

That all changed 10 years ago, in one burst of emotion and speed. To those who were there, the memories remain so vivid -- the special Goodwrench Plus paint scheme, Earnhardt shouting "we won it" over the radio, the lucky penny glued to the dashboard, the crewmen on every other team lining up to congratulate the sport's iconic driver. Earnhardt's long-awaited victory in the 1998 Daytona 500 brought as much relief as joy, and it cemented the Intimidator's record as the best ever on this big 2.5-mile track.

"He wanted it real bad," car owner Richard Childress remembered. "To see him finally get it was the most rewarding part of it."

He had every right to hate the place. Daytona dealt Earnhardt more than his share of heartache, from the 1986 empty fuel cell to the 1990 cut tire to crashes while battling for the lead in 1991 and 1997. But he thrived on the speed and the tactics and the draft, and won virtually every four-wheeled event the facility had to offer. He won in binges -- 10 consecutive Daytona 500 qualifying events, five consecutive then-Busch races, four consecutive International Race of Champions trophies and three consecutive Budweiser Shootouts. He won a record 34 times at Daytona before he lost his life in the last turn of the last lap of the race he loved most.

His statue stands outside the track's main entrance. Had he lived to retirement age, Childress believes, Earnhardt would have still come back and raced at Daytona year after year. His legacy is as permanent as Daytona's 31-degree banked corners, and each Speedweeks it is carried on by his youngest son.

Inside the car, as the drivers vie for position on the racetrack and try to use the air to their advantage, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is very much his father's son. The way he drives, the way he uses so much of the racetrack, and the way he excels in the draft, they all remind many of the man called Big E. And like his dad, he wins here -- 12 times and counting, including last Sunday's victory in the Bud Shootout and Thursday's win in the first 150-mile qualifying event.

"He's that good here," Childress said. "He's just like his dad was."

And now, he's clearly asserted himself as the favorite to win Sunday. Earnhardt Jr. has one of those runs brewing like the one he unleashed on Speedweeks in 2003, when he swept the Shootout, the then-Busch race and a qualifying event before an alternator failure derailed his bid for the 500.

"It looks like he's going to sweep Speedweeks if he doesn't break," Kenny Wallace said.

But there is one notable difference between the Earnhardts at Daytona -- the son isn't still chasing a victory in NASCAR's biggest race. He achieved that in 2004, in just his fifth attempt, and today is still grateful that he's not forced to duplicate his father's long, quixotic quest.

"To know for sure that I maybe was not going to have to go 20 years and not win it ... there are a lot of great names in this sport that didn't get the chance to sit in that Victory Lane with that trophy," he said. "It's unfortunate, and it brings you down a little bit, when you're so passionate and a historian of the sport like me. The Mark Martins and the guys that deserved it, and put their heart and soul into this sport. I felt so lucky and just relieved that I had gotten that, because it consumes you. It consumed my dad to chase after that win. So that was the biggest feeling that I had. We were celebrating like hell when we won it. The relief was amazing."

As it surely was for his father six years earlier. A little girl in a wheelchair gave Earnhardt a penny in an attempt to change his bad luck in the race, and his crew glued it to the dash. It rode with him as he led 107 laps, successfully evading all the gremlins that had thwarted him in the past. On the final laps, Childress stayed off the radio -- they had gotten this close too many times to butt in now. After he crossed the start-finish line Earnhardt exclaimed "we won it," something that still gratifies Childress to this day.

"Dale was never one of those guys who said, 'I won it,'" Childress said. "He said, 'We won it.'"

Because of the man behind the wheel, because of all the pain and disappointment that preceded it, that 1998 Daytona 500 still stands out. Now it's time for the younger Earnhardt to try to add another chapter to the growing Earnhardt legacy at NASCAR's most famous track.

"I feel like we've got a shot, you know what I mean?" Earnhardt said. "Nobody's boastful enough, I don't think, personality-wise, to come in here and claim [to be the favorite]. I wouldn't expect anybody here to do that, but I think we have a great shot. We've won some races down here, so we've got to be in the group if there's a group of them."