She flew across the Atlantic Ocean and broke nearly every barrier that was in place for female pilots in the early 1900s. She was relentless, fearless and bold.
And now, Amelia Earhart is headed for the Daytona 500.
Well, Amelia — otherwise known as Chassis No. 88-872 for Dale Earnhardt Jr. — that is.
Earnhardt wheeled this particular superspeedway car at all four restrictor-plate races last season, earning two wins. Reusing a car that ran multiple races last season is unusual, as teams like Hendrick Motorsports have the resources to build brand new cars every year.
But Amelia is special.
“A car gets named when you drive it long enough to see a personality, typically,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said last month. “… We’re going to take the same car because it was so successful. The fact that we’re going to keep running it, I said, ‘We gotta name it’ and we were thinking of a woman who has accomplished something that was an awesome person that was something we could be proud of.
“Amelia Earhart was the first thing that came to my mind.”
It’s almost a perfect analogy, from the personality similarities to even their similar last names, Earhart and Earnhardt. Like Earhart, Earnhardt’s ‘Amelia’ experienced great success in the form of two trips to Victory Lane last season — but she also faced adversity, notably at Talladega in the fall when Earnhardt battled from the back to the front several times but failed to win his way into the next round of the Chase.
And for Earnhardt, Earhart’s redeeming qualities parallel the characteristics that every race car driver needs at the track.
“(Earhart) must have been the most daring; she sort of fits that mold of the courage and determination that you need as a race car driver,” Earnhardt said. “She must have had that and more to be able to do the things she did in her lifetime.”
However, there’s one hiccup in Earnhardt’s perfect tale: Earhart’s eventual fate of disappearing while attempting to circumnavigate the earth on her final flight.
This doesn’t bother No. 88 crew chief Greg Ives in the slightest.
“The way I look at it is, the eventual fate is to be going into the Daytona USA and being left there for a year,” Ives said, referring to where winning Daytona 500 cars reside for a year. “And eventually what happens is after it comes out of the Daytona USA, (team owner) Mr. Hendrick puts it into his museum.
“So, if (disappearing from the shop) the fate of the race car because we win the Daytona 500, I’m all for it.”
