During the week of the historic Daytona 500 each year, NASCAR and racing fans around the world remember the exciting life and final race of motorsports legend Dale Earnhardt. Today, February 18, 2021, marks two decades since the unsettling crash in the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 which would take the life of an American racing icon affectionately known as The Intimidator.
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Born in Kannapolis, North Carolina on April 21, 1951, young Dale Earnhardt would find out early, just as his son would find in turn, that being the son of a motorsports legend doesn t automatically qualify to earn your paycheck at 200 mph. Ralph, the patriarch of the Earnhardt dynasty, would race on local dirt tracks in North Carolina along with working in a textile mill to put food on his family s table.
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