2001 Dura Lube 400

2001 Dura Lube 400

Race details[1]
Race 2 of 36 in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Layout of North Carolina Speedway
Date	February 25–26, 2001
Location	North Carolina Speedway, Richmond County, North Carolina
Course	Permanent racing facility 1 mi (1.637 km)
Distance	393 laps, 399.681 mi (643.224 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching up to 71.6 °F (22.0 °C); wind speeds up to 14 miles per hour (23 km/h)[2]
Average speed	111.877 mph
Pole position
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	23.401
Most laps led
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	180
Winner
No. 1	Steve Park	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
Television in the United States
Network	Fox Broadcasting Company/FX
Announcers	Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds
Nielsen Ratings	7.0/10

The 2001 Dura Lube 400 was the second stock car race of the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. It was held on February 25, 2001 but ended on February 26 due to a rain delay at North Carolina Speedway, in Richmond County, North Carolina and was the first race to take place after the death of seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt on the last lap of the Daytona 500, and he was commemorated in various ways throughout the race weekend.

The race was delayed for more than 90 minutes before only competing for 52 laps when it was stopped due to rain falling on the race track. The race restarted the next day under sunny conditions. The race was won by Steve Park in the No.1 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt, Inc.; this was DEI's first win after Earnhardt's death in the previous race. This was also Kevin Harvick's debut in the Cup Series, as he replaced Earnhardt in the #3 (renumbered 29) Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

Report

Pre-race ceremonies

Before the start, the race was delayed for 1 hour and 33 minutes. During this time, Darrell Waltrip led an invocation that commemorated Dale Earnhardt.^[3] Waltrip asked for all spectators to hold the hand of the person that sat next to them to bond and remember Earnhardt. Waltrip also performed a prayer asking for strength, pray for the Earnhardt family and asked for sadness to be turned for celebration towards Earnhardt's life.^[4][5] The invocation was joined by Staff Sgt. Joseph Hunter of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base who performed the national anthem which was to have been followed by three F-15 Stick Eagles from the 333rd Finer Squadron Lancers of Seymour Johnson that would have performed the missing man formation over the racetrack with the No. 3 missing man aircraft absent from the proceedings. This did not occur due to heavy cloud cover.^[6] During the national anthem, the three crews from Dale Earnhardt, Inc. stood atop their pit walls and raised their caps in the air and this continued when the drivers entered their cars.^[7] The pole position was left open during the parade lap in tribute to Earnhardt.^[8]

Race

On the first lap, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was bumped from behind by Ron Hornaday, Jr. heading into turn 3 and sent it into Kenny Wallace's path, crashing at 150 mph at an angle with Earnhardt, Jr. suffering bruising and a limp in his leg.^[4] Other cars involved were Jimmy Spencer, Mike Wallace and Hut Stricklin. Despite this, Earnhardt Jr. was taken by an ambulance to the medical center.^[9]

On lap 44, Park passed Gordon for the lead. Two laps later, the yellow flag was waved when rain started to fall on the track. The race was eventually stopped with Stacy Compton leading when everyone made their scheduled pit stops.^[10] The race was red flagged, and eventually postponed to Monday, February 26 at 11 am Eastern Standard Time. The next day, the race restarted on lap 56, and Gordon took the lead from Compton, who did not make a pit stop before the red flag, and led 18 laps before Park took over the top spot. The race went 188 laps green until Mike Skinner spun out on the backstretch, bringing out the third caution of the event. The race restarted once more, and went 52 more laps before the fourth and final caution came out for oil on the track. The race restarted with 85 laps to go. Gordon led the next thirty, before Park took the lead. With less than 10 laps to go, Bobby Labonte was closing in on Park. Park held off Labonte for his second and to date, most recent Cup win.

Post-race

After crossing the finishing line, Park raised a No. 3 Earnhardt hat that hanged on his gearshift lever and thrust it out of the car to holding it high in tribute to Earnhardt. Park also performed a spin, drove towards Michael Waltrip and made a brief stop with the exchanging a high-five.^[11] As Park celebrated, he received a call from Earnhardt's wife Teresa Earnhardt who watched the race at the Dale Earnhardt, Inc. shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. According to Park, Teresa was emotional, but happy.^[12] The race took three hours, thirty-four minutes and twenty-one seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 0.138 seconds.^[13]

Race results

Pos	Grid	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	2	1	Steve Park	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.	Chevrolet	393	180/5
2	3	18	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing	Pontiac	393	175/5
3	1	24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	393	175/10
4	6	20	Tony Stewart	Joe Gibbs Racing	Pontiac	393	160
5	41	32	Ricky Craven	PPI Motorsports	Ford	393	155
6	8	10	Johnny Benson, Jr.	MBV Motorsports	Pontiac	393	150
7	33	2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing	Ford	393	146
8	26	40	Sterling Marlin	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dodge	393	147
9	16	93	Dave Blaney	Bill Davis Racing	Dodge	393	138
10	18	88	Dale Jarrett	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	393	134
11	22	21	Elliott Sadler	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	393	130
12	31	77	Robert Pressley	Jasper Motorsports	Ford	393	127
13	21	55	Bobby Hamilton	Andy Petree Racing	Chevrolet	393	124
14	36	29	Kevin Harvick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	392	121
15	21	25	Jerry Nadeau	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	392	118
16	11	22	Ward Burton	Bill Davis Racing	Dodge	392	115
17	27	33	Joe Nemechek	Andy Petree Racing	Chevrolet	392	112
18	23	19	Casey Atwood	Evernham Motorsports	Dodge	392	109
19	7	15	Michael Waltrip	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.	Chevrolet	392	111
20	17	6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	392	108
21	19	43	John Andretti	Petty Enterprises	Dodge	391	100
22	15	36	Ken Schrader	MBV Motorsports	Pontiac	391	97
23	14	9	Bill Elliott	Evernham Motorsports	Dodge	391	94
24	37	31	Mike Skinner	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	390	91
25	28	14	Ron Hornaday, Jr.	A.J. Foyt Racing	Pontiac	390	88
26	24	4	Robby Gordon	Morgan-McClure Motorsports	Chevrolet	390	85
27	10	11	Brett Bodine	Brett Bodine Racing	Ford	390	82
28	38	17	Matt Kenseth	Roush Racing	Ford	389	79
29	35	5	Terry Labonte	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	389	76
30	32	26	Jimmy Spencer	Haas CNC Racing	Ford	389	78
31	43	90	Hut Stricklin	Donlavey Racing	Ford	389	70
32	29	50	Rick Mast	Midwest Transit Racing	Chevrolet	388	67
33	20	01	Jason Leffler	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dodge	387	64
34	39	66	Todd Bodine	Haas CNC Racing	Ford	387	61
35	42	44	Buckshot Jones	Petty Enterprises	Dodge	383	63
36	9	97	Kurt Busch	Roush Racing	Ford	383	55
37	5	99	Jeff Burton	Roush Racing	Ford	379	52
38	13	12	Jeremy Mayfield	Penske Racing	Ford	364	49
39	4	28	Ricky Rudd	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	355	51
40	34	7	Mike Wallace	Ultra Motorsports	Ford	355	43
41	40	92	Stacy Compton	Melling Racing	Dodge	295	45
42	30	27	Kenny Wallace	Eel River Racing	Pontiac	0	37
43	25	8	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.	Chevrolet	0	34
Failed to Qualify
		96	Andy Houston	PPI Motorsports	Ford
		45	Kyle Petty	Petty Enterprises	Dodge
Source:[13]

References

1. "The Race: Dura-Lube 400". Jayski's Silly Season Site. ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
2. "Weather information for the 2001 KMart/Dura Lube 400". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
3. Shontz, Lori (February 26, 2001). "Dura Lube 400 opening-lap crash by Earnhardt Jr. mars rain-delayed race". Post-Gazette. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
4. "Park Does It For Boss At Dura Lube". CBS News (CBS). February 26, 2001. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
5. NASCAR on Fox (Television Production). Richmond County, North Carolina: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
6. "Rain-delayed Dura-Lube 400 to resume today at 11 a.m.". The Post and Courier. February 26, 2001. p. 6C.
7. "Earnhardt honored at track". Sun Journal. February 26, 2001. p. C1.
8. "Victory dedicated to Earnhardt". BBC Sport (BBC). February 27, 2001. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
9. Harris, Mike (February 25, 2001). "Earnhardt Jr. crashes at start of Dura Lube 400". USA Today. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
10. "Rain postpones Dura Lube 400". crash.net. February 25, 2001. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
11. "A win in the memory of Earnhardt". Gadsden Times. February 27, 2001. p. B1.
12. Associated Press (February 27, 2001). "Parks wins Dura Lube 400". The Augusta Chronicle. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
13. "2001 Official Race Results : Dura Lube 400". NASCAR.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2004. Retrieved December 2, 2012.