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Days
of thunder |
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Teresa
Earnhardt talks about crash that took her husband’s life, how she’s
working to preserve his legacy |
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FORTY SUPER-CHARGED race cars,
throttling up at nearly 200 miles per hour, just inches apart, jockey for
position on the tri-oval stretch of blacktop called Daytona.
Two years ago, as the white flag signaled the great American race’s
final lap, fans braced for a dramatic finish. The leader board showed three
drivers, all teammates, running one, two and three.
Katie Couric: “Were you there?”
Earnhardt: “Uh-Hum!”
Couric: “And were you watching?”
Earnhardt: “Uh-huh. Yeah, that last lap was very exciting.”
Teresa Earnhardt had more than a vested interest in the outcome of
this race. Not only was she the co-owner of the multi-million-dollar race
team out in front, she was married to the man running third. And she had
gotten used to seeing Dale’s No. 3 black Chevrolet running wide open in a
frantic sprint for the checkered flag.
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Dale Earnhardt Legacy Program |
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Dale
Earnhardt Incorporated |
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Earnhardt: “I knew Dale first-hand, and I knew how incredible
he was. He was just bigger than life. I didn’t worry about his ability at
all. I didn’t have to at the race track, because Dale could take care of
himself.”
But as the cars careened around Daytona’s treacherous turn four, Dale
Earnhardt lost control.
Couric: “You’d seen him crash before?”
Earnhardt: “Uh-huh.”
Couric: “How many times, Teresa?”
Earnhardt: “Not that much. He was very good.”
For Teresa Earnhardt, days like this were nothing new. She was used
to seeing the men she loved perform their death-defying maneuvers at race
tracks since she was a little girl, growing up in the circle track hotbed of
Hickory, N.C. Both her father and her uncle were local racing heroes. Though
it seemed her degree in interior design from Piedmont Community College in
1978 might have put her on a course of her own, her priorities shifted when
she was introduced to a dirt poor sportsman circuit driver from nearby
Kannapolis, named Dale Earnhardt.
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Remembering Earnhardt |
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MSNBC Interactive |
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Couric: “What was it about him that attracted you?”
Earnhardt: “Just he was always very energetic. And just seemed
to not be timid about what the job was that needed to be done.”
A high-octane mixture of brash ego and fierce determination earned
Dale a record-tying seven Winston Cup championships, millions of fans, and a
nickname, “the intimidator.”
Said one NASCAR rep, “Most drivers will tell you they hated to see
Earnhardt’s car in their review mirror.”
Couric: “Were you ever scared to death watching this?”
Earnhardt: “No. I grew up around it so, you know, it’s second
nature to me. And it’s just like other sports. I mean, bull riding and
motorcycle, you know, racing, boxing, I don’t understand why they do that
either. But they know what they’re doing. So — and it’s a choice. Everybody
chooses it. So, that’s America.”
So is capitalism. And together, Dale and Teresa Earnhardt formed one
of the most lucrative tag-team partnerships in all of sports. With Dale
handling the racing, and Teresa handling the sponsors, Dale Earnhardt
Incorporated (DEI) became a motor sports empire, which Forbes recently
valued at $80 million. |
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“Dad always said that before he met Teresa he owed the
bank money,” says Dale Earnhardt, Jr. “And by the time they got married the
bank owed him money.”
Couric: “Dale Earnhardt, Jr., seemed to say that you knew when
to open and close the checkbook.”
Earnhardt: “I mean, you’ve got to know what you got and what
you’re going do with it. So, I didn’t think that was anything extraordinary
either.”
Dale’s take-no-prisoners approach more than made up for his wife’s
aw-shucks humility. And for 20 years, it seemed as though Team Earnhardt was
unstoppable. But on Feb. 18, 2001, the veneer of invincibility was shattered
when Dale crashed into the wall at Daytona — at 158 miles per hour.
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Couric:
“When you saw him go into that wall did your heart stop? Did you think,
‘Oh?’”
Earnhardt: “No, because I know the cars are safe. And in
racing, things happen so quick that there’s no time to like dwell on
anything. So, it’s just—”
Couric: “When this happened did you think he’s okay?”
Earnhardt: “We just have to wait and see. You really just have
to wait and see.”
Couric: “How did you find out what happened to him?”
Earnhardt: “We went onto the infield care center and onto the
hospital.”
At 5:16 p.m. that Sunday afternoon, Dale Earnhardt was pronounced
dead.
“NASCAR has lost its greatest driver ever,” said NASCAR president
Mike Helton. “And I personally have lost a great friend.”
Grief-stricken fans mourned Dale’s passing by placing flowers at the
gates of DEI headquarters in Mooresville, N.C. And even President Bush
honored his friend by lowering the White House flag to half staff. But the
one whose loss was most personal, Teresa, didn’t have time to grieve. Within
days of Dale’s death, she found herself in a race against time — filing an
injunction to keep her husband’s autopsy photos sealed from an inquiring
media. |
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“Anyone looking at any of them is the most personal
invasion of my privacy and my family’s privacy that I can imagine,” she said
in court.
Couric: “Why was it so important for you, Teresa, to become
personally involved in this?”
Earnhardt: “Well, I really didn’t have a choice. I just think
it’s a privacy issue, and a dignity issue. And it should never have even
been an issue. But it was.”
It was an issue because under a Florida state law, autopsy photos
were public record. And the press, namely the Orlando Sentinel, wanted
access to the photos. In fact, they had already been examining the safety of
NASCAR (which insists to this day, it is passionately committed to the
safety of its drivers.)
“We had no interest in publishing the photos,” says Orlando Sentinel
vice president and editor Tim Franklin. “We expressed that to Mrs. Earnhardt
from the beginning. We didn’t want to invade her privacy, we didn’t want to
extend her grief. We simply wanted a medical opinion that would provide more
knowledge about how drivers die.” |
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Teresa not only won the battle in court, she also won at
the State Senate. In a unanimous vote, Florida enacted the Family Protection
Act which prohibits public access to autopsy photos without a court order.
And now, 18 other states have followed its lead. It’s a victory, she says,
not only for her, but for their 14-year-old daughter, Taylor.
Earnhardt: “It just turned out that what I had to do to
protect myself and my family was a major movement for everybody in Florida.”
Meanwhile NASCAR says it remains passionately committed to driver
safety. And since Earnhardt’s death, it’s implemented a number of changes,
including mandating the Hans device as well as data recorders in all cars,
similar to those used in airplanes.
And now, two years later, Teresa remains at the helm of Dale
Earnhardt incorporated, a diversified company which includes a Perdue
chicken farm, a minor league baseball team — oh, and it’s three Winston Cup
race teams, who will be racing these cars at Daytona this weekend.
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Teresa’s also started the Dale Earnhardt Legacy Program, a
foundation she hopes will celebrate the life, and further the memory of her
late husband and the many causes close to his heart, including children’s
education and wildlife preservation.
But whether it’s continuing on with the nine-to-five business of
running DEI or the 24/7 job of being a single mom, Teresa Earnhardt is a lot
like the man who drove the No. 3 car: tough, tenacious and almost always in
control.
Couric: “When you and Taylor, your daughter, maybe have some
private moments, do you ever just cry together, or do you cry by yourself,
just from the shear sadness of having to live without the man you loved?”
Earnhardt: “I might do something like that for about 10
seconds. And I hate it. I hate it so bad, feeling bad, that I just turn it
off. I mean, I miss him, and I always will. Just terribly. But I’m not going
to feel bad about it. I’m going to feel glad about what I had.”
In June, there will be a concert at Daytona to benefit the foundation
formed in Dale Earnhardt’s memory. Sheryl Crow, Alabama and Kenny Chesney
will be among the performers.
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There is also a video if you are intrested
And where all links work.
Go To:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/872994.asp
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