I don't think this is the time to place the blame on any single driver. As much as I love Dale, I don't blame Sterling for the incident, it was just 'racin.' Sterling had a fast car, Dale and Co. had fast cars, you can't fault anyone for wanting to win. You can blame Earnhardt to a final unselfish act.
This is how I look at it. Earnhardt could have tried to win that race. Any other day Dale would have tried to push his way to the front and taken the checkered flag. That's Dale for you. The 'Intimidator,' the guy 'who'd run his own son off the road' for the victory.
Last Sunday was a special day. This one day, Dale took a step back and said, "let's let the little ones battle it out, and have their day in the sun."
Sure the fact that one car was his son's and the other was another car he owned played a big role, but the old Dale wouldn't have let that hold him back, he'd pick up Sterling and a couple others, and Jr. and Michael would fall way back in the pack without any help.
And that's how he lost his live, that final unselfish act to help Waltrip win his first race.
Hell, I don't particularly love M. Waltrip, I thought "what the heck???" when Earnhardt picked him up for his team, but while watching that race, I felt a bit of a change in my heart. At first I was thinking, "come on Dale, 3 more to go, now's your chance to take Daytona again, this season's ours!" Then when I saw what he was doing, blocking for his boys, and I heard DW's emotional cheers from the broadcast booth, I changed my tune.
I started thinking, "yeah, this is how it should be, that would be great if Michael could win his first race under the watchful eye of his owner and his brother in the booth. A 1-2-3 for DEI and RCR, that's pretty special." And it happened, kind of, and I cheered, and I thought, "well, 12th isn't too bad, we got 35 more races to make it up." Then I saw Schrader, and I knew it was bad, at that point, I was just praying the Dale would be okay, even if he never climbed into a race car again, I would have given anything if he could just retire and watch his son win championships for him, but it wasn't to be.
Let's not place blame today, let's just remember. Rember a man who made racing so memorable, whether you loved him, worshipped him, or hated him. Let's honor him, and try to move on, racing will never be the same, but I for one am glad that I was here to share in his victories and his defeats, and in the final act of unselfishness that brought it all to an abrupt end.
Thanks for making our lives a bit more exciting ,Dale, goodbye to my hero.