Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Bad alternator, rain ruined Dale Junior’s day

Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2003 | 10:12 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- From the sidelines, Dale Earnhardt Jr. experienced his father's frustrations in the Daytona 500 before the elder Earnhardt finally broke through and won his first 500 in 1998 -- after 20 tries.

Junior is 0-for-4 in the "Great American Race" after his 36th-place finish Sunday and now knows first-hand just how difficult it can be to win NASCAR's showcase race.

Despite dominating Speed Weeks with victories in the Budweiser Shootout, 125-mile qualifying race and Saturday's Busch Series race, Earnhardt was done in Sunday by a faulty alternator and a dead battery.

"Damn it -- it's really heartbreaking to do so well and then have something like that go wrong," Earnhardt said. "We know that this kind of thing happens to champions. We're disappointed but we're going to go on and focus on the championship.

"That's the way this kind of race goes. You can win everything at Daytona but the 500 is another kind of deal entirely. Look at my dad: It took him 20 times to win this thing. Hopefully we're not going to have to wait that long but it just seems like weird things happen in this race."

Earnhardt, who made up one of the two laps he lost while replacing the battery, said he believed he eventually could have contended for the win had the race not been called after 109 laps because of rain.

"If we could have gone back out (and finished the race), we were going to get back up front," Earnhardt said. "We would have needed another yellow flag or two to help us but we would have been there.

"The car was awesome and we made our way from the back to the front pretty easily. The car was so good it seemed like the guys ahead of us just moved over. It was kind of like they were saying 'go on by and we'll see ya (next week) at Rockingham.' They didn't want to get in our way."

Kurt Busch, who finished second to race winner Michael Waltrip, said there was a collective sigh of relief from the remainder of the leaders once Earnhardt stated sliding back with the electrical problems.

"It was amazing ... when (Earnhardt) dropped out, everybody's eyes lit up, everyone's foot got heavy," Busch said. "It was a whole new race at that point.

"I guess if the race continued forward, the 8 car would have worked its way back on the lead lap and we would have had to deal with two DEI cars."

Vasser, a veteran of 11 CART Champ Car seasons and the series' champion in 1996, said it was one of the hardest hits he has taken in a racecar.

"I've have some hard hits but I think this is the hardest," Vasser said after spinning and hitting the outside wall between the third and fourth turns and getting struck by another car.

Vasser, who finished 28th Saturday, said he still intends to run about nine more Busch races this season with Braun Racing while competing full-time with Stefan Johansson's Champ Car team.

"It was fun up until that lap," Vasser said of his Busch Series debut. "I learned a lot. This was a first step to create an opportunity for myself (in NASCAR) and we'll see what happened from here."

"I said from the beginning that I wanted to be the top Dodge program and we were the best Dodge (on Friday)," Gaughan said. "If we continue to run this way, I think we can win the championship because I think the Dodges are the best trucks out there."

Gaughan led the race three times for 14 laps. He was running sixth when a caution came out on the final lap and his Orleans Racing Dodge stalled because he was low on gas and it wasn't reaching the fuel pickup in the tank.