Someone asked me the other day why so many people like Dale Earnhardt. The best answer I could come up with was from the great book "Sunday Money" by Jeff MacGregor. He asked a normal Southern NASCAR fan why he rooted for Earnhardt and the guy thought for a second before responding, "He drives the way I feel."
Earnhardt drove the way Southerners feel, specifically Southern males. Inherent in every Southern male is a deeply felt pride, both in our country and in our region. There is also a lot of love, joy, humor, and some sadness. What was personified most in Earnhardt's racing style was a feeling of aggression, anger, and even rage, but not road rage at the jerk who decided to turn left from the center lane. Rather, there's an a feeling that sits down in every southern guy's soul that turns us into a dog backed into a corner, ready to come out fighting at the slightest threat, be it physical or verbal.
This personality trait comes from our shared history, great, painful (a lot) and shameful (some) as it might be, as well as our feeling of being the country's "red-headed stepchild." One professional football player said once about his coach, "We could cuss him as much as we wanted, but we wouldn't let anyone else cuss him." It's the same way with Southerners; we can bad mouth our state or region or country, but we'll be damned if we'll let anyone else do it! This feeling comes through in music like Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" and Hank Williams, Jr's "A Country Boy Can Survive."
But where it was most prevelant to a lot of people was in the shape of the black number 3, knocking competition out of the way, passing on the outside at Talladega, scraping the wall at Darlington, and turning victory doughnuts in the grass at the 500. The mirrored sunglasses, the redneck mustache, and the bumper on your ass, he was The Intimidator. And five years after his death, Dale Earnhardt's image and personality are still hanging over Daytona. Of course it is, he drove the way we feel.
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