Jimmy's Journal - The Original: February 2011

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Michael Waltrip Wins Daytona 250 Truck Race On Earnhardt Anniversary

Michael Waltrip capped the 10-year anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s death by winning the season-opening Trucks Series race at Daytona International Speedway. Waltrip, driving for Earnhardt, won the 2001 Daytona 500, but his victory lane celebration was darkened when he learned that his friend Dale Earnhardt had been killed in a crash on the last lap of the race.

If poetic justice rings a bell, Waltrip won the 2001 Daytona race on February 18th and repeated with a Daytona Truck victory ten years to the day. Waltrip passed Elliott Sadler in the final hundred yards of the race. Waltrip choked up talking about what the win meant, especially since it came a decade to the day after his first victory at Daytona.

Waltrip was driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. back then, and his frivolity turned to fright on Dec. 18, 2001, when word spread that his close friend and car owner was badly injured on the final lap of the Daytona 500. Earnhardt was pronounced dead a short time later, and Waltrip never got to celebrate what should have been the biggest victory of his life.

Waltrip said. "Today, obviously with it being the 10th anniversary of that terrible day, I wanted to be able to tell people that I was here in honor of Dale." Friday night’s win also made Waltrip the 22nd driver to win in each of NASCAR’s top three series.

Daytona International Speedway now turns to the Nationwide series race today at 1:00 pm and the Daytona 500 on Sunday at 1:00 pm. Michael Waltrip is racing in both of these events. It should be some great racing!

That's it for now. More soon.

Stay Tuned !

About AREA 51

AREA 51 began as a location in a local watering hole where my friends and I would always sit. Soon thereafter, people began stopping by and asking me why the area was always full and so popular. I would tell them that we were the descendants of the UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico and that we always sat together. My friends then had an AREA 51 sign made and placed it over the barstool where I always sat. Since that day years ago, there was always an AREA 51.

It has since been transformed to described my current watering hole. Since joining AOL Journals in December of 2006, I began adding honorary members to the AREA 51 menagerie. AREA 51 is a state of mind and not always a location. The majority of the members have escaped from a home and are constantly looking over their shoulders. They are intelligent, fun loving and enjoy life to its fullest.