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The Rock provided healing when sport needed it most
Track helped sport move forward after Earnhardt tragedy
This time, a piece of the Rock wasn't for sale. The right buyer could purchase the whole doggone thing.
When North Carolina Speedway went on the auction block Tuesday, it wasn't just a place that was being bargained away. There were valuable memories included as part of the package, too.
This is the place where racing legends with the last names of Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon, Yarborough and Parsons came to clinch driving championships in pre-Chase years past. It is where Matt Kenseth once edged Kasey Kahne by .010 seconds in one of the closest, most exciting finishes in NASCAR history. It is where the legendary Dale Earnhardt clinched the record-tying seventh, and last, of his Cup Series championships in 1994.
But most important of all, the one-mile banked speedway in Rockingham, N.C., affectionately known for more than 40 years simply as The Rock, is where NASCAR came for some much-needed healing during the last weekend of February, 2001.
One week earlier, Earnhardt had passed away during a last-lap accident in the Daytona 500. Less than 48 hours before qualifying began for the Rockingham race, dozens upon dozens of drivers past and present and every NASCAR official imaginable had been among a throng of 3,000 attending an invitation-only memorial service for Earnhardt at Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C.
There had been talk of postponing the Rockingham race. Eventually that talk was dismissed. It was decided that the racing must go on, and immediately.
In many ways, Earnhardt in death became even bigger than he had been in life, where he lived larger than most. And his final parting gift to the sport he loved so much was prophesized by Bruton Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, that afternoon outside Calvary Church after the memorial service.
"The sport has lost great drivers before, but I think this has brought attention to our sport in a way that is unbelievable," Smith said of Earnhardt's death. "If you're not an avid race fan, you've heard about our sport now -- and maybe it is an awakening. Maybe, even in death, Dale Earnhardt is going to continue to build our sport. That's the way I look at it.
"This has been such a major, major shock. But it's brought a bigness to our sport that I never realized was there. We're going to miss him, but we will go on. We've exposed our sport internationally now, maybe in a way that we never could have. I guess the only way I can put it is that this reminds me a great deal of when Elvis [Presley] died. It makes me wonder if Dale Earnhardt will have the same impact on his world that Elvis did on his."
Two days later, the show went on at Rockingham.
No one really wanted to be there; yet no one who felt any obligation at all to stock-car racing could stay away.
"As much as you want to hope it's business as usual, it's not," driver Jeff Gordon said upon arriving at the facility. "There's definitely something missing and everybody is very aware of that."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a monumental step toward manhood that no doubt would have made his daddy proud. Then only 26 years old and competing in his second full Cup season, he spoke briefly with reporters but did not take questions.
Mainly, he wanted the world to know that he in no way blamed driver Sterling Marlin for his father's death -- even though Marlin had received death threats from angry and misguided Earnhardt fans after the accident, which had occurred at least in part because Marlin brushed the elder Earnhardt from behind.
"That's ridiculous, and it won't be tolerated," Earnhardt Jr. said of the accusation.
And for most (and for all those with any sense), that was the end of that NASCAR conspiracy, which wasn't given time to fester.
The pole for the race was won by none other than Gordon, to so many the anti-Earnhardt figure of the day -- but in truth a business partner of the man in black, and a driver who long ago had earned Earnhardt's respect on and even off the track.
Former track rival and driving champion Darrell Waltrip also spoke with the media prior to the Dura Lube 400. He was peppered with the same questions again and again: Why continue to race? Why did any of them want to go on?
"It comes down to risk versus reward. Are you willing to take the risk for the reward?" he replied.
Speaking to the sellout crowd of more than 50,000 just before the green flag dropped, Waltrip expanded on his answer. After a moment of silence for the fallen driver of the black No. 3, during which total silence was only intermittently interrupted by sound of someone sobbing, Waltrip literally trumpeted the beginning of another race.
"Why are we racing here today? Because Dale would have wanted us to!" Waltrip thundered over the public-address system.
Kevin Harvick made his Cup debut that day. To say he replaced Earnhardt at Richard Childress Racing would be incorrect, for no one ever really replaced Earnhardt. But Harvick was the reluctant substitute in a new RCR car that afternoon.
Perhaps not surprisingly, he doesn't have particularly fond memories of The Rock.
"For me personally, I didn't really like Rockingham, to tell you the truth," Harvick said Tuesday. "It was one of those places where we didn't run very good, where things didn't go very well for us. Obviously that was where I made my first [Cup] start, so it was a place that I will always will remember. Obviously it wasn't under the circumstances that any of us ever anticipated.
"We've moved on from a lot of those things. Obviously that was a tough day for everybody. Really the only thing I remember about that day was getting on the wrong helicopter, because [then-fiance] DeLana and I were going to Las Vegas to get married [immediately afterward]. So that was about the biggest mix-up that we had that day.
"But obviously the emotions and everything, with what happened the week before and going forward, that was not a situation everyone wanted to be in. We've come a long way since then."
Harvick finished a respectable 14th that day. Earnhardt Jr. finished 43rd, following a harrowing moment only seconds after the start of the race when he crashed head-on into an outside wall in an accident eerily reminiscent of the one that had taken his father's life only one week earlier.
A hush came over the crowd, followed by a collective sigh of relief when Junior, then known more as Little E, hobbled away with minor injuries and a clear resolve to race again.
The eventual winner of the event was Steve Park, who fittingly drove for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Park thanked Earnhardt afterward for being the one who taught him how to drive at The Rock.
There would be only six more Cup races at Rockingham after that, with the last coming on Feb. 22, 2004, when Kenseth won there again. That year, what had been a second race date for Rockingham was shipped to California Speedway as NASCAR sought to play a bigger market. Shortly thereafter, the facility sold for $100 million in a legal settlement involving Smith's SMI Corp. and the France family's International Speedway Corporation, and the venue's second race date ended up going to Smith's Texas Motor Speedway.
The place has pretty much remained empty since, except for the sporadic rental use by racing schools, some test sessions by various race teams, and when it was used as the occasional prop for movies -- such as Talladega Nights and 3.
What happens after Tuesday's auction, when the track and its surrounding 240 acres were expected to sell for pennies on the dollar despite a current estimated tax value of $30 million, remains to be seen. But no one should ever forget it is the place where they came to race when they needed to the most.
Track helped sport move forward after Earnhardt tragedy
This time, a piece of the Rock wasn't for sale. The right buyer could purchase the whole doggone thing.
When North Carolina Speedway went on the auction block Tuesday, it wasn't just a place that was being bargained away. There were valuable memories included as part of the package, too.
This is the place where racing legends with the last names of Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon, Yarborough and Parsons came to clinch driving championships in pre-Chase years past. It is where Matt Kenseth once edged Kasey Kahne by .010 seconds in one of the closest, most exciting finishes in NASCAR history. It is where the legendary Dale Earnhardt clinched the record-tying seventh, and last, of his Cup Series championships in 1994.
But most important of all, the one-mile banked speedway in Rockingham, N.C., affectionately known for more than 40 years simply as The Rock, is where NASCAR came for some much-needed healing during the last weekend of February, 2001.
One week earlier, Earnhardt had passed away during a last-lap accident in the Daytona 500. Less than 48 hours before qualifying began for the Rockingham race, dozens upon dozens of drivers past and present and every NASCAR official imaginable had been among a throng of 3,000 attending an invitation-only memorial service for Earnhardt at Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C.
There had been talk of postponing the Rockingham race. Eventually that talk was dismissed. It was decided that the racing must go on, and immediately.
In many ways, Earnhardt in death became even bigger than he had been in life, where he lived larger than most. And his final parting gift to the sport he loved so much was prophesized by Bruton Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, that afternoon outside Calvary Church after the memorial service.
"The sport has lost great drivers before, but I think this has brought attention to our sport in a way that is unbelievable," Smith said of Earnhardt's death. "If you're not an avid race fan, you've heard about our sport now -- and maybe it is an awakening. Maybe, even in death, Dale Earnhardt is going to continue to build our sport. That's the way I look at it.
"This has been such a major, major shock. But it's brought a bigness to our sport that I never realized was there. We're going to miss him, but we will go on. We've exposed our sport internationally now, maybe in a way that we never could have. I guess the only way I can put it is that this reminds me a great deal of when Elvis [Presley] died. It makes me wonder if Dale Earnhardt will have the same impact on his world that Elvis did on his."
Two days later, the show went on at Rockingham.
No one really wanted to be there; yet no one who felt any obligation at all to stock-car racing could stay away.
"As much as you want to hope it's business as usual, it's not," driver Jeff Gordon said upon arriving at the facility. "There's definitely something missing and everybody is very aware of that."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a monumental step toward manhood that no doubt would have made his daddy proud. Then only 26 years old and competing in his second full Cup season, he spoke briefly with reporters but did not take questions.
Mainly, he wanted the world to know that he in no way blamed driver Sterling Marlin for his father's death -- even though Marlin had received death threats from angry and misguided Earnhardt fans after the accident, which had occurred at least in part because Marlin brushed the elder Earnhardt from behind.
"That's ridiculous, and it won't be tolerated," Earnhardt Jr. said of the accusation.
And for most (and for all those with any sense), that was the end of that NASCAR conspiracy, which wasn't given time to fester.
The pole for the race was won by none other than Gordon, to so many the anti-Earnhardt figure of the day -- but in truth a business partner of the man in black, and a driver who long ago had earned Earnhardt's respect on and even off the track.
Former track rival and driving champion Darrell Waltrip also spoke with the media prior to the Dura Lube 400. He was peppered with the same questions again and again: Why continue to race? Why did any of them want to go on?
"It comes down to risk versus reward. Are you willing to take the risk for the reward?" he replied.
Speaking to the sellout crowd of more than 50,000 just before the green flag dropped, Waltrip expanded on his answer. After a moment of silence for the fallen driver of the black No. 3, during which total silence was only intermittently interrupted by sound of someone sobbing, Waltrip literally trumpeted the beginning of another race.
"Why are we racing here today? Because Dale would have wanted us to!" Waltrip thundered over the public-address system.
Kevin Harvick made his Cup debut that day. To say he replaced Earnhardt at Richard Childress Racing would be incorrect, for no one ever really replaced Earnhardt. But Harvick was the reluctant substitute in a new RCR car that afternoon.
Perhaps not surprisingly, he doesn't have particularly fond memories of The Rock.
"For me personally, I didn't really like Rockingham, to tell you the truth," Harvick said Tuesday. "It was one of those places where we didn't run very good, where things didn't go very well for us. Obviously that was where I made my first [Cup] start, so it was a place that I will always will remember. Obviously it wasn't under the circumstances that any of us ever anticipated.
"We've moved on from a lot of those things. Obviously that was a tough day for everybody. Really the only thing I remember about that day was getting on the wrong helicopter, because [then-fiance] DeLana and I were going to Las Vegas to get married [immediately afterward]. So that was about the biggest mix-up that we had that day.
"But obviously the emotions and everything, with what happened the week before and going forward, that was not a situation everyone wanted to be in. We've come a long way since then."
Harvick finished a respectable 14th that day. Earnhardt Jr. finished 43rd, following a harrowing moment only seconds after the start of the race when he crashed head-on into an outside wall in an accident eerily reminiscent of the one that had taken his father's life only one week earlier.
A hush came over the crowd, followed by a collective sigh of relief when Junior, then known more as Little E, hobbled away with minor injuries and a clear resolve to race again.
The eventual winner of the event was Steve Park, who fittingly drove for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Park thanked Earnhardt afterward for being the one who taught him how to drive at The Rock.
There would be only six more Cup races at Rockingham after that, with the last coming on Feb. 22, 2004, when Kenseth won there again. That year, what had been a second race date for Rockingham was shipped to California Speedway as NASCAR sought to play a bigger market. Shortly thereafter, the facility sold for $100 million in a legal settlement involving Smith's SMI Corp. and the France family's International Speedway Corporation, and the venue's second race date ended up going to Smith's Texas Motor Speedway.
The place has pretty much remained empty since, except for the sporadic rental use by racing schools, some test sessions by various race teams, and when it was used as the occasional prop for movies -- such as Talladega Nights and 3.
What happens after Tuesday's auction, when the track and its surrounding 240 acres were expected to sell for pennies on the dollar despite a current estimated tax value of $30 million, remains to be seen. But no one should ever forget it is the place where they came to race when they needed to the most.
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