February 16, 1997: With less than 10 laps to go in the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt (in 2nd place) flips on the backstretch ending his chances at winning his very first Daytona 500. After getting in the ambulance, he notices that all of the tires are still inflated. He gets out of the ambulance and asks one of the track crew guys to see if the car will crank up… It did!! Dale climbs back in the car and drives his wrecked #3 toward pit road. I was at this race sitting on the backstretch, and I couldn’t believe after flipping at 195mph, that he had the balls to get back in the car to finish the race. Coming around turn 4 the crowd from the front stretch grandstands began cheering, they were so loud that we heard it from the backstretch. Larry McReynolds had no idea what the crowd was cheering about because he had no radio contact with Dale… Then in disbelief, he sees Dale’s wrecked Monte Carlo coming down pit road. They taped the car together, changed 4 tires, and off he went to finish 31st in the race. That was Earnhardt! H/T>
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