Dale Earnhardt Jr. relives the 2001 24 Hours of Daytona as he sits down with Andy Pilgrim, Kelly Collins and Doug Fehan. As the Corvette racing program began to take shape in the early 2000s, Dale Jr. and his father Dale Earnhardt turned the racing world on its side by taking part in the crown jewel sports car event. Doug and Andy explain that the partnership actually formulated a year earlier when the team won the Petit Le Mans. Dale Sr. wrote Andy a letter congratulating him on the win and his impressive pass to do so, while expressing interest in teaming up. Corvette reached out through Gary Claudio, who had experience working with NASCAR through Pontiac’s program and the deal was set for the 2001 running at Daytona. 

The guys recount the testing sessions at Sebring and Daytona leading up to the race and help paint a picture of Dale Sr. that listeners may be unfamiliar with. Dale Jr. recalls crashing the car immediately in his first session, as he set out to run it like his stock car. He explains that the tires needed a gradual warm up instead of a quick onset like he was used to, and it caught him off guard. Dale Sr. was all in on the experience and insisted on being involved in every meeting and decision surrounding the partnership. Dale Jr. shares a story about practicing driver swaps with his father during a NASCAR Cup weekend to help prepare them for their upcoming sports car debut. The interview also breaks down the race weekend, the plans to continue on with Corvette in the future and what the teammates have been up to in the years that followed.

 

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