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The American flags were hard to miss
on the day Dale Earnhardt Jr captured his 4th career win
after leading 193 laps at the Dover Monster Mile in the
2001 Cal Ripken Jr 400.
The first NASCAR race after the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks was a day of prayers, patriotism and
healing.
"I don't think it would've mattered who would've won
this race," an emotional Dale Earnhardt Jr said "The
fact that we're here, driving and racing and the fans
can witness a good race is healing enough. It could've
been Ricky Rudd or Dale Jarrett or anybody. It would've
been the same feeling and the same emotion. I'm just
really, really fortunate to have been the guy."
Junior looked to have the car to beat following
Saturday's final practice session. Ricky Rudd and Dale
Jarrett told him so during driver introductions on race
day as well. Rudd would go on to lead 169 laps, but
finish third behind Dale Jr and Jerry Nadeau.
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Early in the race Earnhardt was dominant.
Leading 154 of the 1st 183 laps. During long
runs he stretched the lead to 3 seconds.
"After about 200 laps, the car just got away
from me," Earnhardt said. "We tried to make
adjustments, but they didn't help any. We went
from a first- to a third-place car in about 75
laps."
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On lap 183 Earnhardt surrendered the lead to Ricky
Rudd, who would hold the top spot for 160 laps -- until
Rusty Wallace's bumper sent Rudd spinning down the front
stretch.
Following a round of pit stops under caution
Earnhardt found himself trailing Dale Jarrett, Tony
Stewart and Jerry Nadeau. But Tony Eury, Earnhardt's
crew chief, had made the right adjustments and the car
was starting to come back to Dale Jr.
Following contact from Tony Stewart with just 11 laps
remaining, Dale Jarrett quickly saw his chance to win
evaporate.
When the green flag fell with 6 laps to go Earnhardt
held off a challenging Jerry Nadeau then pulled away to
a 1 second lead.
One he would hold to the finish line.
"I just didn't have that much for Dale Jr, he was
that much better than I was," Jerry Nadeau said of his
effort to catch the 8 car.
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"Where's that big American Flag," Earnhardt
radioed to his crew on the cool down lap.
Moments later one of the crew members ran out
to the track and handed the flag to Dale Jr, and
he made a reverse victory lap with the flag
flying out his window.
''We're all looking at each other for answers
on what to do next, and what's tasteful and not
tasteful,'' Earnhardt said ''So today was a good
day. Today was a good day for the cause, for the
support of America and its future plans, and
definitely for NASCAR and for NASCAR's fans.''
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The race distance was 400 laps on a 1.00 mile track,
for a total of 400 miles.
Official NASCAR Timing & Scoring measured the time of
the race at 3 hours, 56 minutes, 19 seconds at an
average speed of 101.559 MPH.
The average speed was 58.320 MPH off the pole speed
of 154.919 MPH, due in part to 11 cautions for a total
of 71 laps.
Dale Earnhardt Jr's official margin of victory over
2nd place Jerry Nadeau was 1.576 seconds.
Earnhardt was awarded $168,858 for his winning
performance in this race, the 27th of 36 races held in
2001.
''We're all looking at each other for answers on what
to do next, and what's tasteful and not tasteful,''
Earnhardt said ''So today was a good day. Today was a
good day for the cause, for the support of America and
its future plans, and definitely for NASCAR and for
NASCAR's fans.''
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