Junior's win in the No. 3 to be remembered forever

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If you're looking for a defining moment to an event, it doesn't get much better than Tony Eury Jr., in the immediate aftermath of his cousin Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s artfully-crafted and exquisitely-unexpected victory Friday night at Daytona.

This was Daytona, -- of all places -- for the Earnhardt family. And in a one-time, one-race tribute to his late father Dale Earnhardt's No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet, "Little E" delivered.

Daytona video

• Nationwide Race Review
• Emotions of the victory
• Victory Lane: Daytona
• Final Laps: Fitting tribute
• Fans salute Dale Earnhardt

"We lost everything here," Eury Jr. told the television audience, his emotions welling. "To come back with that number and do this, it means everything."

And with that, he turned from the camera, possibly lost in thoughts of the dark February day in 2001 when Earnhardt was killed in a crash in Turn 4 on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Neither Eury Jr., nor anyone else for that matter, could accurately portray what NASCAR's 2010 landscape might resemble if Earnhardt had lived.

But leave it to Earnhardt Jr. -- some 40 minutes later -- to put a passionate exclamation point to all the emotion. His alternately playful, invective-spiced discourse that was simultaneously deeply thoughtful as only Earnhardt Jr. can achieve, was something rarely, if ever seen at this level of NASCAR.

Even carrying no less than 26 conversationally-eloquent curse words of varying levels, it was a thing of beauty -- as much as the retro No. 3 Wrangler-branded ride Earnhardt Jr. qualified, ironically, in the third spot.

And so was the race itself, despite the obvious pressure of being Dale Jr. at a plate race and carrying the branding his dad had made famous.

Never mind the fact that Earnhardt Jr. had won consecutive Nationwide Series titles driving a No. 3 car -- indeed, had made nearly every start in that series up to the point he went full-time in Cup, in a No. 3.

This was all about karma, and it was big.

"I felt a lot of pressure to win," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I didn't know if we could pull it off. But we were very lucky and very fortunate to have made some of the moves we made, and we had some great luck. It just all worked out. I feel lucky.

"I mean, there's always pressure driving with that car [and] that sponsor. To everyone outside this room, maybe some of you guys here, anything less than a win was pointless. What did we do this for? Did we even honor him by bringing it out and running fifth? What the hell?" (Continued)