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For 15 consecutive years, when the Winston Cup season came to a
 close and Dale Earnhardt took stock of his campaign, he always had a victory to point to. A checkered flag at Charlotte here, a romp at Richmond there. Of course, there's always
Talladega.
But when the 1997 campaign wrapped up, Dale had no such triumph to reflect upon. Dale Earnhardt's streak of 15 seasons with at least one victory, and usually far more, came to an end in 1997.
Four runner-up finishes, including the Winston 500 at Talladega when he le 76 of 188 laps, was the best he could do. As a result, Dale's career-worst winless streak grew to 59 races.
Despite his failure to find victory lane, Dale was consistently good enough to finish fifth in the final point standings, a result of his impressive, if slightly misleading, run of 33 races without a DNF.
The No.3 car was running at the end of every race, even if Dale was only in it on 32 of those occasions.
 At the season opening race, the Daytona 500, Dale flips with his car, and the thousends watching from the grandstands held their
breaths.
But Dale climbed out of the wreckage, and some laps later he came back to the race with the mangeled car.
In the August 31 Southern 500 at Darlington, Dale's afternoon came to a quick and mystifying early end. On the opening lap, Dale apparently blacked out and crashed into the turn 3 wall.
Though able to return to the pits, Dale Earnhardt was removed from the car and immediately hospitalized for
abservation.
Tests throughout the week turned up nothing unusual, and Dale was back behind the wheel for the next race seven days later at
Richmond.
The cause of the blackout is still unknown. The cause of the winless season also remains a mystery.
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