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.

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"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?"

But Earnhardt Jr. and his cousin, who was responsible in a hands-on way for virtually all of his Cup wins and most of his Nationwide ones, delivered.

Even though Earnhardt Jr. proved early he had a good car, it was never a sure thing. He didn't lead until Lap 70 of the scheduled 100. But once he got there, he led the final 33 laps -- including holding off the car he thought was better, Joey Logano's, in a green-white-checkered finish.

“

I felt a lot of pressure to win. 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.

”

-- DALE EARNHARDT JR.

Was that luck, or destiny? Whatever it was, it answered at least one question that Junior already -- long ago -- had figured out. This was "it" for him and the No. 3.

"I will never do it, I'll never rethink it, I'll never consider it," Earnhardt Jr. said when asked of his future plans for he and the No. 3. "I think that it's important for everybody to know that that's as concrete as it gets. I'll never do it again."

The fallacy the public creates is that Earnhardt Jr. is a machine, a marketing dynamo impervious to doubt, or pressure or emotion. He is none of those things.

What he has proven, forever and every day he's been at NASCAR's highest level, is that he's bluntly honest.

"I enjoyed it," he said of the experience. "[But] it's hard for me. It's a balancing act between you and the public and myself and my own feelings. It's such a tough deal. It's real emotional for me preparing for it and putting it together [because] it's just so damn hard to know how everybody feels about it.

"I just want to come race. I just like cool-looking cars. This was a helluva cool-looking car. I always loved the scheme. That's all that mattered to me, was just the scheme. I just love the car. I wanted to race it once, and I did [Friday night].

"I'd run the number before in this series, so I didn't really put a lot of stock in the fact that the No. 3 was coming back like a lot of people did. But when I started hearing all that -- how everybody was making such a big deal about it -- I was like, '[Shoot], man, this is like pressure, man. This is a big deal.' So I was a little nervous.

"It doesn't make sense for me to do this again. I think in the Nationwide Series it makes enough sense, and I really wanted to do it and I've done it. I don't ever want to do it again. And I'll never change my mind, ever."

On pit road before the race, as he walked from the back of the grid to the front, after getting out of his pre-race truck ride, Junior stopped to chat with Kenny Wallace, who stood next to his No. 28 car in the 42nd grid position.

They shook hands and Wallace cracked, "I heard you sold a million dollars worth of diecasts. I want one." Earnhardt smiled like that was news to him and shot back, "So do I," as he walked toward the front of the line.

But promotional opportunities aside, in Earnhardt Jr.'s mind, there was one thing beyond feel-good that his victory created.

"I do believe this [victory] helps me [Saturday] because the [new] Nationwide car now kind of drives similar [to the current Cup car]," Earnhardt Jr. said. "This helps my confidence. You know, every time you win and do good, I just think it will give you a boost. I told Rick [Hendrick, Cup owner] I had another tank in the bus for [Saturday] and we'd bring it out."

And that led to a question, and led to one of Earnhardt Jr.'s most insightful, and incisive, sets of comments. The query was that old saw about Junior's "commitment."

"I think people can stop questioning my commitment -- whether I care, whether I have the passion anymore, enough passion," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I have worked my ass off to get back just to subpar. Are we right? No, I'm still wrong [laughter].

"Anyways, to be above average, I have busted my ass. I mean, I can't drive and work any harder than I'm working right now. I can't. This is all I got. And I'm doing it hard, man. I mean, I cannot work any harder.

"You can't do this half-assed. You can't do it 90 percent. You'll get eaten up. It will be obvious to everybody around you: Your team, your crew chief, everybody who builds your motors, builds your cars -- they'll stop giving a [crap] because they know you're not giving a [crap] and you won't go anywhere.

"I'm not burnt out. I still got a lot in the tank. We got a long season left. But I got the passion, man. I want to win. I want to be here for a long, long time. But I guess people will question that until you're done -- not just me, other drivers, too, I'm sure.

"I shouldn't take it so personal. But, man, when you work so damn hard -- I mean, you guys know how it is. You're working your [tail] off to try to get somewhere, do the best you can to do your job, whatever it is. For anyone to ever wonder whether you're giving it all you got pisses you off. But that's just the way it is."

In the end, "it" -- the win -- was big; even nine years after the death of Dale Earnhardt. The Lap 3, three-finger salute by thousands proved his memory will never die -- even if his son, in his passion, made one last plea.

"This is it," Earnhardt Jr. said of him and his dad's former number. "I just knew before the race, and I said it -- I felt 110 percent sure, regardless of whether we finished or even started the race. So, yeah, I'm so glad we won.

"It means more to me now, knowing that I won't ever do it again, that I won. You know, we can all just remember this, squash it, finish our lives, you know? Do what we got to do, what we need to do, 'til we get too old to do whatever we want to do."

And thank God, the cousins proved, Friday night, that day's a long way into the future.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

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