by Darrell Waltrip

Stevie Waltrip on the 2001 Daytona 500
The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man will run to it and be safe. "That was the scripture for that day for Dale. He always would give me a hug. We always said we loved each other. That was how I said goodbye although I didn't know I was saying goodbye."
DW's 2001 interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Column on the interview 'What would Dad do? Part I: 'I don't want to ever forget' Part II: Growing up Earnhardt Part III: 'He was the best' Part IV: Heavenly father Part V: Light helmet, heavy heart?
Larry McReynolds: The Big Picture
I: Saying good-bye to Earnhardt II: Moving on III: A FOX first IV: Empty without Earnhardt V: Life as a broadcaster

But I'll never forget that Sunday morning, Feb. 18, 2001. Stevie was anguishing over whether she should try to find Dale and take the scripture to him. We were talking about it, and I said, "Honey, his team and his guys have told me how much it means to Dale." I had seen Dale get out of the car and go looking for Stevie to get the scripture to put in the car so I knew how important it was to him.

I encouraged her to find him and give it to him, and along with our daughter Jessica, she struggled to find the right verse. She went to Proverbs. The race was on the 18th so she looked at Proverbs 18 and found verse 10: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man will run to it and be safe." For whatever reason, she liked that scripture so that's what she gave him, and it was what was in his car at Daytona.

Stevie witnessed to Dale when Neil Bonnett died in a practice crash at Daytona in 1994. Before the '94 Daytona 500, we were standing on pit road, and Dale was obviously shaken up by what had happened. Stevie and I were standing and praying with Max Helton of Motor Racing Outreach. Dale was nearby, and he came over. When we got through praying, Stevie gave me on a notecard with my scripture to put in the car like she always did. Dale asked, "What's that?" Stevie told him it's a bible verse that she had looked up that day. Stevie always tried to find verses that fit that weekend, something that was going on or something that happened. Just something that was appropriate for that weekend and that race. It was never meant to bring good luck. It was only meant for encouragement and for protection.

Dale said, "I want one. Where's mine?" Stevie ran back to the coach, looked in the bible, wrote a verse on a notecard, ran back to the starting grid and gave it to Dale to put in his car. From that day on, Dale didn't race too many Sundays without a bible verse from Stevie in his car. As a matter of fact, David Smith, Chocolate Myers or one of Dale's crew members told me they had collected them out of the car and made a scrapbook.

Ask DW
AskDW Subject: Comment/Question: Name:  Email:  Hometown:

I know how important the verses were to him, and if someone was going to tell the Dale Earnhardt story, his faith was an important part of his life. He was very private about it. He didn't go around talking about it, but he did a lot of things for the church in Kannapolis. There was a side of Dale that he didn't let very many people see, and I would like to have seen that part in the movie.

Rather than saying the movie should have been about this or that, or it didn't get this or that right, it doesn't really matter. It wasn't about me. It was a two-hour movie. If you're going to do a special on Dale Earnhardt five nights in a row, you could tell more of the story.

The movie reminded me of things that we did together and how we kidded each other at my last Cup race in Atlanta. He brought me that rocking chair, and we said we would sit on the front porch, watch our kids and grandkids play and talk about how many races we had won.