| 1998 - Finally the Daytona 500 |
In the first race of the 1998 season, Dale finally slayed his biggest and last remaining demon: the
 Daytona 500. Around the front of the field all day, leading 107 of 200 laps, Dale held the advantage during the restart with 23 laps
remaining.
He held off challenges from Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield and Bobby Labonte, then watched as a Lap 199 accident brought out the white and yellow flags simultaneously. The yellow prevented a last-lap duel with runner-up and pole winner, Bobby Labonte.
Following his Daytona 500 victory, Dale Earnhardt enjoyed some of the most touching and memorable moments of his career. In a genuine, impromptu reaction that reflected the admiration and respect Dale Earnhardt commanded among his peers, members of every NASCAR team lined pit road to salute his long-overdue victory.
Though certainly well-deserved, Dale's win at Daytona couldn't have been more
improbable.
Dale hadn't won a race in 59 starts, the longest drought of his career. He entered the Daytona 500 with lower expectations, at least in the eyes of others, than at any time since the early 1980s. Perhaps this made the triumph more likely, and what followed more
foreseeable.
 In his previous 19 seasons, Dale seemed to use his annual Daytona disappointment to fuel his effort during the rest of the
season.
In 1998, when he finally had a Daytona 500 to his name, the opposite happened. The '98 season soon became one of the worst in his career.
Another big and hard accident at Talladega Superspeedway caused some injury and points lost. He and Bill Elliott crashed hard into the outside wall at Talladega (Ward Burton tapped Dale before at the rear bumper).
Over the next 32 races, Dale was rarely a factor, comiling just 13 Top 10 finishes and a career-low five Top 5s. Moreover, by season's end, Dale Earnhardt was 1,4000 points in arrears of champion Jeff Gordon, the biggest difference between the series winner and Dale in his storied
career.
Of course, in light of Gordon's historic campaign in 1998, the same fate befell many drivers that season. Dale Earnhardt still earned a place in New York at NASCAR's annual year-end banquet at the Walldorf-Astoria with eight-place finish in the season standings. Largest point difference between Dale Earnhardt and the Winston Cup champion.
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