The Intimidator never gave up.
Dale Earnhardt, Sr., ranks among the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time, but the sport’s most iconic race almost remained out of his reach.
It took the seven-time Cup Series Champion 20 tries to finally take the checkered flag at the Daytona 500 and send NASCAR nation into a frenzy.
The day after the race he was in New York City doing media and made a surprise appearance on the David Letterman show.
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Earnhardt wasn’t exactly know for his comedy chops, but stepped on stage in his rad leather Daytona 500 winner’s jacket to present the Top 10 Reasons It Took Me 20 Years To Win The Daytona 500 list with a surprisingly “aw shucks” delivery.
The Letterman YouTube channel posted the clip this week, and and the Top 10 reasons are:
10: It took me 19 years to realize I had the emergency brake on.
9: Finally rotated and balanced my mustache.
8: Quit training with the Canadian snowboarding team.
7: Stopped letting my 300-pound cousin Ricky ride shotgun.
6: New strategy: Pretended I’m Dave driving home on the Merritt Parkway.
5: Who cares that it took 20 years — at least my name isn’t Dick Trickle.
4: Just figured out that if you mash the gas pedal all the way down, the car takes off like a son-of-a-bitch.
3: My new pit crew — The Spice Girls.
2: This year whenever I passed somebody I gave them the finger.
1: My secret to success: One can of motor oil in my engine, one can of motor oil in my pants!
A couple of the jokes are funnier in the context of the era, with a Canadian snowboarder testing positive for marijuana use after winning a gold medal at the Nagano Winter Olympic Games and Letterman’s history of getting caught speeding on his commute to and from his home in Connecticut to the studio in New York City.
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Earnhardt came oh-so-close to getting a second Daytona 500 win in 1999, but finished second to Jeff Gordon after an epic battle, two years before he was killed in a last-lap crash while running third behind his son Dale Jr. and race winner Michael Waltrip.