Monday, Feb. 16, 2004 | 11:16 a.m.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. captured the crown jewel of stock-car racing, the Daytona 500, in his fifth attempt. His father, the legendary Dale Earnhardt, made 20 agonizing starts in the "Great American Race" before he won it.
But don't think for a second that Junior believes he is in the same league as his father.
Earnhardt Jr. passed Tony Stewart with 20 laps remaining in Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup season opener at Daytona International Raceway and held on for an emotional victory on the sixth anniversary of his father's lone Daytona 500 win. He followed that up this morning with a victory in the Hershey Kisses 300 Busch Series race, which had been postponed on Saturday.
"There's days when I feel like I'm as good as he was," Junior said of his father, who died in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
"There's times on the racetrack where I get real confident and feel like he couldn't have done it no better than that right there. But it ain't long before I figure I was wrong. Even if you thought you were better than him, he just had a way of proving you wrong."
Inspired largely by the memories of his father's near misses -- and untimely death -- in this race, Earnhardt acknowledged that he was obsessed with winning the Daytona 500.
"Maybe all those things that happened in the past is what made us work harder, (to) try to win this race more than any other," he said. "This is more important to me than anything -- any other race I run all year.
"I ain't ashamed to say that I put a lot of emphasis on coming down here and winning this race just because of what I've been through down here."
Stewart, the runner-up, admitted to being happy for Earnhardt.
"Considering what this kid went through losing his father here at the Daytona 500, and knowing how good he's been here ... it's nice to see him get his victory here, too," Stewart said. "I think his father's really proud today."
Not that Stewart, who led a race-high 97 laps, handed Earnhardt the victory.
"You know, I'd love to have won the race -- trust me," Stewart said. "I did everything I could to still win the race. If I could have held him off, had him finish second, I would have done in it a heartbeat.
"But there was no holding that kid back today. Today was his day."
Earnhardt, who started from the pole position when pole winner Greg Biffle was moved to back of the field after changing engines Saturday afternoon, felt the same way.
"We had a great car this week," he said of his No. 8 Chevrolet. "Comparing myself to everybody in practice all week, I thought I had the best car out of anybody.
"When I got out front, I really didn't have any challenges during practice and stuff. There were times, the couple practices prior to and after the 125 race, where I thought I might have had the best car I ever had down here."
Earnhardt led the race five times for 59 laps but was running third after the final round of pit stops, with 29 laps remaining. Scott Wimmer used a two-tire stop to get out of the pits ahead of Stewart and Earnhardt, both of whom took four tires, but held the lead for only five laps.
Stewart stayed in front for five laps but couldn't hold off Earnhardt.
"I tried everything I knew to do," Stewart said. "His car would really take off when he wanted to drop back and get a run on somebody. If I tried to drop back, I couldn't do that.
"We were just going to run a constant speed. But to try to pass him where I had to back away from him to try to get a run up on him, it took the car too long to spool back up on him and I couldn't do it."
Wimmer finished third in a Dodge. The beleaguered rookie, who was arrested two weeks before the Daytona 500 for driving while intoxicated, was both excited and surprised by his finish.
"I'm really excited about how we ran today," Wimmer said. "We've been struggling all Speedweek; didn't qualify well, didn't have a real good twin. But the guys really worked hard to make the car better."
Wimmer, who lost his driver's license and still may face sanctions from NASCAR once his case is settled, said he thought he was in danger of losing his ride with Bill Davis Racing.
"It's something that went through my head, (that) there's no way Caterpillar is going to let me race this racecar," he said. "We went through it and Caterpillar was willing to give me a second chance, and Bill Davis was.
"(This race) is a big momentum boost for me. I've been through a lot lately and I've kind of been down on myself. I've still got a long road ahead, but we're going to get it fixed up and hopefully make it so nobody else makes the same mistake I did."
Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five as Chevrolets took six of the top 10 spots in a race that saw 26 lead changes among 10 drivers.
Stewart credited the new Goodyear tire for producing better racing on the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
"I honestly think the tires is what made the difference," Stewart said. "Guys had to drive their cars ... it put the driver back into it.
"We may not have had 20 guys go across the line within five-tenths of a second of each other, but who cares? Guys got to race today; that's what this whole race it all about."
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