One year after the untimely death of NASCAR’s biggest star, Dale Earnhardt Sr., the sport returned, hoping for a better start to the 2002 season.
Argue all you want, but I got a huge kick out of the 2002 Daytona 50 post-race interview. I’ve searched high and low for the interview with the winner, but all I could get was this Daytona 500 recap by Ken Squire.
Ward Burton, who might be better known in the NASCAR world for being Jeff’s brother, won the Daytona 500 that day, beating out Elliott Sadler in a mad dash to the finish line.
With a few laps remaining in the season opener, Ward Burton was running second to Sterling Marlin. In the days before the “green-white-checkered” finishes, NASCAR did its best to finish under green. After a wreck, NASCAR halted the field on the backstretch.
What happened next was almost unthinkable.
With cameras trained on his car, Marlin got out and went to assess possible damage on his right front quarterpanel from when he bumped Jeff Gordon out of the way. Marlin leaned down and gave the sheet metal a tug, all caught on FOX’s cameras. NASCAR determined the Marlin worked on his car under the red flag, a huge no-no in NASCAR’s rule books. Marlin was sent to the back of the field, and Burton assumed the lead.
Burton held off the challenges from Sadler over the final few laps and took the biggest win of his career.
It’s tough to say if any Daytona 500 produced a more surprise winner, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Daytona, it is one unpredictable race.
And that is just one of the many reasons we all watch.
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Have a good Friday afternoon. I’ve got lots of work to do over the weekend, and I’m sure a blog or two will be up as the weekend progresses. Enjoy.
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