Dale Jr.'s Daytona 500 memories

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams are in Las Vegas testing and preparing for the upcoming season. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sam Hornish Jr. and Denny Hamlin met with reporters during the test session Monday at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Some of the questions directed at Dale Earnhardt Jr. were about the Daytona 500.
Earnhardt Jr. has one Daytona 500 victory to his credit. His father, Dale Earnhardt, won the Daytona 500 only once in his career. And it came late in his career, after repeated near misses and hard luck.
Earnhardt Jr. said racing for as long as his father did without winning the Daytona 500 was one thing that frightened him.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew cheif Tony Eury Jr. prepare for testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

"It scared me to death that I would be racing for 20 years still trying to get the win," Earnhardt Jr. said. "How many times will you have the opportunity, be in good cars, to be able to do it? I always worried that I would lose all the Daytona 500s in the cars that I should have won it in. That's kind of how it went for him."
Earnhardt Jr. won his only Daytona 500 driving a car for Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team his late father founded. Earnhardt won his only Daytona 500 while driving for Richard Childress Racing. The one race that Earnhardt Jr. remembers being particularly difficult to watch was the 1990 Daytona 500, when Earnhardt cut a tire on the last lap while leading.
"The 1990 Daytona 500, when he cut that tire on the backstretch, that was one of the hardest things to understand," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I was a sophomore in high school, old enough to really kind of understand what was going on around me. I just couldn't believe that – I know there's worse things that can happen to you, and there's people that deal with worse, people that have it hard.
"But, dang, man, I wanted that race so bad. That was such a rough way to go. I didn't know what kind of person he was going to be when he got home, whether my daddy was going to be different the rest of his life."
Apparently, the elder Earnhardt took it well. Well enough as can be expected. It made an impression on Earnhardt Jr. and taught him how to deal with adversity.
"You know, he dealt with it," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That made me admire him more. You know, that made me hopefully a better person just experiencing that and being that close to him and watching him go through it. When I deal with those type of things, when you deal with losses, when things don't go your way, maybe I'm better off having witnessed him do it."
Earnhardt Jr. still has a hard time believing he already has one Daytona 500 victory and he's glad he doesn't have to endure the struggles his father did with that race.
"But, yeah, I mean, I went into my first Daytona 500 with a pretty decent car," Earnhardt Jr. said. "After that we just kept getting better. I think I've had cars that should have won that race about every time I've been in it. That would have been frustrating. That's what I was scared of, that I would look back over 20 years without the trophy saying, 'Dang, I had 18, 15 opportunities, 15 cars that could have won it, and I didn't get it done.' That would be hard to live with.
"But, I tell you, I didn't think I was gonna win it. I damn sure didn't think I was going to win it in my fifth try. That's crazy."