Rare Home Video From 2001 Daytona 500 Shows Dale Earnhardt, Donald Trump Before Infamous Race
I've always been fascinated with the 2001 Daytona 500. I know, it seems sort of dark, given what happened to Dale Earnhardt on the final turn of the final lap, but whatever.
Old stuff fascinates me. And yes, 2001 was 23 years ago, so it qualifies as old. Hate to break it to you, but it's probably time to accept it.
Anyway, I love old stuff. And I really love old NASCAR stuff. When your sole job is to constantly search the internet in 2024 for things to blog about, you often find yourself pining for the old days. The simpler days. The pre-internet, pre-iPhone days.
I found myself in one of those nostalgic moods earlier this week, and the internet – as it often does – delivered. I was scrolling Elon's Twitter, and, for some reason, the algorithm brought me to some recently resurfaced footage from the 2001 Daytona 500.
And by "resurfaced footage," I mean someone on YouTube uploaded an HOUR's worth of camcorder footage from the garage before, during and after the 2001 Daytona 500.
And buddy, if you're a NASCAR fan, it's mesmerizing:
Old footage has this NASCAR fan feeling nostalgic
I know it's long, but it's worth it. Again, if you're a history buff or a NASCAR fan or both, this sort of thing is right down your alley.
I mean, just watch it! Skim through it, at least.
If you're here for the Dale Earnhardt stuff, skip ahead to around the 3:30 mark. That's when these two heroes walk over to Dale's garage and check out the No. 3 Goodwrench machine.
There it is, in the flesh, for one final time. Like, that's it. That's the last time that car will ever be in the garage. Wild. They visit Earnhardt again around the 13-minute mark. You can listen to him fire up that bad boy around the 16-minute mark.
Most of the first half of the video is spent walking up and down pit road and the garage area before the green flag drops. A very young and much less-hated Donald Trump makes his big cameo around the 32-minute mark. If you'd like, you can listen in on the debate surrounding his hair. Up to you.
Anyway, fast-forward to around the 1:05 mark for the end of the race.
The Earnhardt wreck takes place in Turn 4, so you can't see it. You do see Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr. cross the stripe at the end, and you can hear the stadium PA talk about the medical team attending to Earnhardt around the 1:06 mark.
That's pretty much it, unless you'd like to stick around to listen to the PA guy tell everyone how bad traffic is on I-4 (nothing's changed!) or watch this poor guy search for his camera bag for the final two minutes.
Can't believe it's been 23 years since this race. Wild. It's a day NASCAR fans won't ever forget. And now that the crack OutKick research team has unearthed this footage, you don't have to.
Raise hell, praise Dale!