This is one of those videos that I ran across and immediately had a smile come across my face. Why? Because I remember watching this as it happened on a couch in Florida during a family vacation. I remember Dr. Dick Berggren’s call from the pits that was both breathless and full of the kind of excitement only a true racing fan could muster and I remember sitting there with my dad saying, “Can they really do this?” It was one of the most spellbinding moments I had ever seen in racing and watching it again here brings all those memories flooding back and I love every second of it. Add all that to the fact that this literally cannot happen anymore because of the idiotic rules NASCAR has implemented regarding fixing your car and continuing to race it after an “event” like this.
To set the scene, we’re at the 1997 Daytona 500. It is the beginning of the season. Every team has been there qualifying, testing, running all sorts of races and the world is still waiting for The Intimidator to win his first one at Daytona. Late in the race he and Jeff Gordon tangle and the black #3 Chevrolet literally flies down the straight. It bounces, rolls, and skids to the infield of the track. He’s announced to be OK so the concern melted away into disappointment for Earnhardt fans who would once again be denied the kind of fervor and celebration that had been bottled up for years and years. We saw Earnhardt go check checked out in the ambulance and the race went to commercial. That’s when the magic happened.
After a medical exam that likely ended with Earnhardt fighting his way out of the ambulance he saw that the track guys were preparing to tow his car. He noted that all four wheels were on it and he demanded that the guy in the car try to start it. When it fired to life he ordered the track worker out and he hopped in. Driving the car back to the pits he pulled into his stall and started yelling at the team to tape the car back together so he could return back to the track.
Coming back from commercial there’s a momentary delay and then all of a sudden we hear Dick Berggren’s voice come over the aiwaves over shots of crewmen literally unfurling rolls of duct tape on the car to secure the hood, fenders, and then because the car as part of the mandatory rules had to have a spoiler on it, we see the crumpled remains of the deck lid and spoiler get carried over and the taping process begins. The best line of the whole thing is when Berggren says, “There’s NOTHING MECHANICAL HOLDING IT ON!”
The video stops soon thereafter but the reality is that while the team lost five laps in the process, he finished the race under power and in 31st position. Incidentally, Jeff Gordon went on to win the championship in 1997.
This is one of the greatest “never surrender” moments that we have seen caught on television. Seeing that battered, mangled car back on the track and knowing the guy driving it was one of the meanest and toughest to ever strap on the helmet was the type of theater that only auto racing can deliver. Just magical stuff!
That’s why Earnhardt was “the Man” !! There will never be another, they’ve been legislated out of existence.