He walked with the swagger of a gunslinger, drove racetracks like he owned them and dared anybody to disprove it. He attracted fans and detractors by the millions.
Rarely if ever has one man aroused the passions of an entire sport as Dale Earnhardt did in auto racing. Whether you loved him or hated him, you couldn't ignore him.
Simply put, for more than two decades, Earnhardt was "The Man." His fellow competitors on NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit knew it. In every department, he was the measuring stick.
"I don't mean to slight any of the other top drivers in our sport, but if there was an autograph session and it was Dale Earnhardt against anybody else in the garage area, he would outdraw them two or three to one," driver Jimmy Spencer said. "Why? Because they want to meet John Wayne. He could probably outdraw any professional athlete in the world and maybe even the president of the United States. He had that kind of power."
And now there is, for lack of a better term, a power vacuum. When Earnhardt died on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, it left a void that may never be filled. But, as any eighth-grade science student knows, nature abhors a vacuum.
Somehow certainly not quickly and maybe never quite as well racing will find a way to fill the void. How? We don't know yet. Who? We have some clues.
"I've always said NASCAR is driven by two superstars and five stars," said Humpy Wheeler, the president of Lowe's Motor Speedway and the best promoter in the sport. "Sometimes we've had six stars and one superstar, and sometimes we've had three superstars, but it's an oxymoron to say three, because we can't handle three.
"Two's it. I don't know why. Three is too many. Two is a rivalry, and you've got five that are 'wannabes.' You've got to have that mix."
If you subscribe to that theory, the other superstar is already there: Jeff Gordon.
Wildly successful on the racetrack, Gordon has a squeaky-clean image that in many ways is the
antithesis of the perception of Earnhardt. The two were perfect foils for each other. Gordon rose to stardom by winning 52 races and three Winston Cup championships from 1994 to 2000.
Earnhardt already was there. Even though only 37 of his 76 wins came since 1990, four of his seven championships were won in the decade.
But Gordon is not going to be "the next Dale Earnhardt," nor does he want to be. Replacing Earnhardt, he said, shouldn't even be a part of the equation.
"Why does the sport have to move on without the memory of Dale Earnhardt?" Gordon said last week. "I think that's always going to be a presence, forever."
In a spiritual sense, that's probably true. Even race fans who never saw "Fireball" Roberts race speak of him in reverential tones. Lee Petty will always remain a part of the fabric of racing. In real terms, however, there is still room at the top.
If there is a driver who could be Gordon's counterpart in the "two-star" theory, it might be Tony Stewart. Stewart has some of Earnhardt's irascible qualities he already gets nearly as many boos as cheers and he is undoubtedly a talented driver.
Stewart won three races in his rookie season in 1999, and he won six last year. He also raised enough hackles among fans and competitors alike to at least be mentioned in the same breath.
In Wheeler's model, it takes a rivalry between the two to make both rise to the highest heights. Stewart and Gordon have had a couple of on-track run-ins, but nothing to compare with some that Earnhardt had in his career.
Some of Earnhardt's greatest rivalries never materialized. Tim Richmond and Davey Allison, perhaps the two most qualified drivers to have challenged him, both died (of non-racing causes) before those rivalries could become full-blown.
If, late in his career, Earnhardt needed Gordon as a foil, then Gordon needs someone else to challenge him for supremacy. Or maybe not.
Even if you don't believe the "rivalry" part of Wheeler's theory, NASCAR nearly always has operated with more than one superstar. Richard Petty's star hung in the same heavens with those of David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough. Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip played off each other's success; likewise with Gordon and Earnhardt.
But if it is not going to be Stewart and that's a big if who might it be? The obvious successor, at least down the road, would be the man who carries the name: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But, Wheeler said, the son of NASCAR's greatest racer didn't need that kind of pressure even when his father was alive. He certainly doesn't need it now.
"Junior has got a tremendous challenge in front of him," Wheeler said. "Everybody needs to give him about a year off and if he just makes it to the racetrack, he'll be accomplishing something.
"Everybody needs to just constantly go by him and ask him if everything's OK, not 'How did you qualify,' or 'How did you finish yesterday?'"
Who else?
Rusty Wallace has won a championship (in 1989) and 53 races, the same number as Gordon. But, in terms of career, Wallace is approaching the autumn of his years. Among his fellow drivers, he may become the one to take Earnhardt's place as a statesman in the garage, but he may never spark the passion that Earnhardt did.
The most likely place to look, then, might be among the talented drivers who are just beginning to make their way. Steve Park was handpicked by Earnhardt when he was an unknown driver in the modified ranks of the Northeast, and he has won two races in the last two years.
Last November, when he won the NAPA 500 in a Rick Hendrick-owned car, Jerry Nadeau's talent shone through after several seasons of riding in lesser equipment.
Young Casey Atwood has "star" written all over him, but "superstar"?
Perhaps the man to replace Dale Earnhardt is the one who did. Twenty-five-year-old Kevin Harvick stepped into the biggest shoes in racing a week after Earnhardt's death and, three races later, drove to Victory Lane. It was only his third Winston Cup start, which put him in a very elite class of drivers.
That, however, is asking too much of him, too soon. Or maybe it is asking too much of anyone.
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