Dale Earnhardt's Day from 38th to 2nd - 1999 NAPA AutoCare 500

Dale Earnhardt had a very interesting 1999 NAPA AutoCare 500. He started in the 38th position after having to take a provisional. He was also not feeling well with the flu. Nonetheless, Earnhardt quickly moved his way into the top 20 after about 100 laps. He got trapped a lap down after making a green flag pit stop and then a caution came out on lap 133. Earnhardt was able to get in front of leader Bobby Labonte after a restart on lap 311 and stayed in front. A caution came on lap 374 to get an ambulance inside the racetrack to pick up an injured crew member. This allowed Earnhardt to come back to the front. Earnhardt took the lead from Kenny Wallace on lap 431. He pulled away to a good lead and put several lap cars between him and second place Bobby Labonte. It looked good for another Earnhardt victory. Unfortunately for Earnhardt, a caution came out for a spinning Chad Little on lap 475. Earnhardt pitted, but Labonte took two tires and Jeff Gordon stayed out. On the restart, Earnhardt was able to get by Bobby Labonte, who ended up slowing down due to being down a cylinder. Then, he was held up a little bit by the lap car of Hut Stricklin. Earnhardt got really close, but he couldn't catch Gordon for the win. Earnhardt had not won at Martinsville since 1995, and I was pulling hard on this day for him to win. Even though he didn't win, he was the best short track racer in 1999 with the highest average finish of all drivers for the 6 short track races that year. Perhaps that was a sign of things to come for Earnhardt as Earnhardt's performance on this day would become more regular in the year 2000. As typical in my Earnhardt compilation videos, I tend to find some traditional Earnhardt moves. He moved Kenny Irwin up the track early in the race, and then later made contact with Jimmy Spencer. It looked like Spencer was trying to get back and spin Earnhardt out as sideways as he was, but Spencer ended up having to make a pit stop under green. Earnhardt's crew beat out the left front fender for the rest of the race to make sure it didn't cut a tire down. And also another good Earnhardt quote, this time about Gordon winning with his new crew chief Brian Whitesell. Video is for awareness purposes only. All credit to NASCAR and ESPN.