February 18, 2001 – The 2001 Daytona 500 is still the darkest day in NASCAR’s history. One the last lap of the biggest race of the year, NASCAR’s greatest driver, Dale Earnhardt, spun out and crashed into the wall. Earnhardt would not survive his injuries. Two cars that he owned as part of Dale Earnhardt Inc. would finish 1-2 in the same race (with son Dale Jr. finishing 2nd). Earnhardt also proved to be a championship contender the year prior and was a title favorite in 2001.

As a tribute, we’re going to change the story. We’ll change it by saying that Earnhardt, while injured, survived his wreck in the Daytona 500. And while he sat out the 2001 season, he announced a return for 2002. The quest for Championship #8 is alive. Let’s see if we can get it done!

On most Sundays the plan is to race NASCAR Thunder 2003 with 100% race lengths. We’ll be on custom difficulty with legend mode speed. Going to use a custom damage system (I’m just not going to survive 100% races otherwise) where if we would have DNFed we’ll take a green flag pit pass through depending on how many times it’s happened.  We’ll also being using a custom season schedule, adding night racing (which is awesome) and more road courses (six total, up from the standard two).

All races will be streamed on RDTUniverse on Twitch.tv

First race, the 2002 Daytona 500, will be at 11:00 AM on Sunday, May 31st!

Dale Earnhardt’s career statistics: Here