DAYTONA BEACH -- As I walked past the driver's window of the No. 3 Chevrolet on Sunday, Dale Earnhardt waved, winked and flashed that unforgettable, mischievous mustached smile.

Strapped tightly into the legendary Goodwrench Chevy, and wearing the open-faced helmet he preferred for comfort's sake, Earnhardt was relaxed and affable as he sat on the starting grid for his 23rd Daytona 500.

Never for a moment did I think that would be my last glimpse of his familiar face.

The driver who won more races than any other at Daytona, the driver who amassed seven Winston Cup titles and 76 wins over a 25-year career, the driver who was husband to Teresa and father to Kerry, Kelly, Dale Jr. and Taylor Nicole would not make it to the finish line Sunday.

On the final lap, the man who understood the draft better than anyone else, backed off the lead pack behind Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr. to block the oncoming assault from Sterling Marlin, Ken Schrader and Rusty Wallace. He knew that taking his opponents three-wide would open the door for Waltrip and Junior to battle for the victory.

This wasn't the Dale Earnhardt who said many times that on the track his son was just another competitor. This wasn't the Dale Earnhardt who said he would probably bump Junior's No. 8 out of the way if the black No. 3 had a chance to win.

This was the ultimate act of selflessness from a driver who began the 2001 season with the deep-seeded belief he would win his eighth Winston Cup championship.

And that act of selflessness might have cost him his life.

Marlin, with an excellent chance to break a 149-race winless streak if he could only pass Earnhardt, was impatient. He gave Earnhardt a nudge as the cars roared into Turn 4 -- the kind of play Earnhardt himself might have made -- and the No. 3 careened out of control and hit the concrete retaining wall with a brutal impact.

On the radio, silence.

Richard Childress, Earnhardt's team owner since 1984 and friend even before that, got no response to his anxious radio call to his driver's headset. Childress sent teammate Mike Skinner to the scene of the wreck -- still nothing. He radioed to Teresa . . . to crew chief Kevin Hamlin . . . someone, anyone, to get an answer, but nothing came.

In Victory Lane, Earnhardt's newest driver, Michael Waltrip, was celebrating his first Winston Cup win in 463 starts. The emotion between the Waltrip brothers (Darrell was calling the race from the television booth) was the highlight of the Fox broadcast.

Little did anyone know that NASCAR's foremost driver sat lifeless as paramedics struggled to cut him from his wrecked car, which had come to rest on the grass in the tri-oval portion of the track.

Earnhardt did not respond to efforts to revive him and was pronounced dead at 5:14 p.m. ET at nearby Halifax Medical Center, where he was taken by ambulance.

"NASCAR has lost its greatest driver ever, and I have lost a dear friend," said NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr.

As a young man, France saw Earnhardt's potential. In a recent interview, France talked from his heart about the true contribution Earnhardt had made to the sport his family founded, but even more about the respect he had for Earnhardt as a man.

And next to his father, Ralph, who died unexpectedly in 1973 before he ever got to see his son race in Winston Cup, it was France whom Earnhardt admired most.

"He helped me grow," Earnhardt said last month. "He helped me understand the sport better. Bill has always been a great leader and a great philosopher. The interesting thing about Bill is that he doesn't forget anything about people. He remembers a person's name, who they are, what they do and what they said, for that matter . . . in 1940. He's been there. He's seen it. He's been up against these situations and he knows what to expect and how to handle it."

Although it was Earnhardt himself who laid the groundwork for a formidable motor sports dynasty, it was "Billy's" guidance that took the scruffy factory worker from Kannapolis, N.C., and turned him into a legend.

His wife, Teresa, who knew him best, said that part of the success was selling "Earnhardt" the image -- "The Intimidator," who was feared on and off the track. Yet if Earnhardt respected someone and gained their trust, one couldn't ask for a truer friend.

Earnhardt was also a NASCAR loyalist. Despite the safety issues, despite the uneven distribution of TV money and despite any inequities among the manufacturers, Earnhardt refused to tarnish the name of the family or the sport that made him.

In fact, ironically enough, he predicted before the race that this would be a Daytona 500 to remember.

Little did he know it would be his last.

In an interview last month with Benny Parsons, Parsons spoke of how much Earnhardt had evolved and matured since joining the Winston Cup ranks as a rookie in 1979.

"Earnhardt has really amazed me over the years," Parsons said. "When he first came on the scene, I said he can't pull off representing a big company. And boy, was I wrong there. Then I said he can't be consistent enough to win a championship -- he's too much of a hard charger, he runs too hard to win championships. And once again, I was wrong.

"He has been really truly amazing with how he has grown as far as his ability to speak and get up in front of people and be very candid. He's also been amazing on the racetrack.

"I didn't realize this when Earnhardt first started, but after watching him for the last 20 years, his ability on the superspeedways with the draft is simply incredible. He may not have won the Daytona 500 until a few years ago, but he won everything else there was there. To me, his ability on those racetracks have been nothing short of miraculous.

"Dale Earnhardt doesn't have to win that eighth championship to be considered one of the best race car drivers of all time," Parson added. "Yes, I was surprised at his success last year. As far as this year, I won't count anything out because he has continued to impress me over the last 21 years by doing things, so I shouldn't be impressed any more.

"I think Earnhardt has more fans than any one driver. I wouldn't dare say he has more than all the other drivers combined, but if you interviewed every fan that came through the gates for the Daytona 500 and they gave you an honest answer, I think Earnhardt would total up more than anyone else. Anytime you have somebody that popular -- like Richard Petty or David Pearson -- then yes, they have a dramatic impact on the sport."

Childress and Earnhardt were just two simple racers from North Carolina. Off the track, they were friends. The two hunted and fish and enjoyed the life they had earned together. Childress often said that their relationship was based on "the tremendous respect" they had for each other.

"It doesn't matter what it is, he doesn't like to lose," Childress said. "He just has a competitive nature. When you get down to the last 50 laps of a race, he knows how to dig deeper than any driver I know to make things happen.

"Dale's as focused on that race car right now as he was 10 years ago. He wants to win races and he wants that eighth championship. He knows if we keep trying and working as hard as we did last year, and he keeps his focus, that it will happen."

This would have been the year for an eighth win, but none of that matters now.

Earnhardt had a work ethic second to none. He didn't give handouts to his first three children, choosing to share that same lesson with them. His sons, Kerry and Junior, had to work at Earnhardt's Chevrolet dealership and on their own cars before earning the right to race -- just like Dad. Earnhardt's oldest daughter, Kelly, raced as well, but is currently a successful businesswoman with Action Performance, a racing collectibles business.

When Earnhardt spoke of Kelly's newborn daughter, a softness would come over his face that was unmatched.

But Earnhardt had a final chance to be the father he didn't have time to be to his other children with 12-year-old Taylor Nicole.

It wasn't unusual if Earnhardt was in town to see him pick Taylor up from school or take her hunting for deer on the family's 300-acre farm in Mooresville, N.C.

When I interviewed Earnhardt last month, he could hardly contain his excitement of finding a vintage 1988 Corvette for Taylor -- the year she was born. He spoke of the low miles on the car and how it took him a year to find just the right one. Ironically, like older brother Junior, she had had a dream -- a dream that "Daddy" had bought her a car.

The next day when she got home from school, she and Dad took a spin around the farm in her new Corvette. Earnhardt pointed to the car and bragged about how Taylor was already becoming a great little driver, how she parked the car perfectly on the showroom floor.

Then he said how proud he was of all his children and how far they had come. He described the struggles of building DEI, Dale Earnhardt Inc., but said it was worth it to ensure his children's future.

"In the grand scheme of things, it's unique to have all this, but I feel that Dale Earnhardt Jr. one day will be able to step in and run all this and hopefully Kelly and Kerry and Taylor will all be involved too," Earnhardt said. "They'll all run this and race out of here and then do great. Hopefully after I retire from driving, I'll be a great car owner for several years, then I can turn this over to the kids and let them run it and race on."

Ned Jarrett, a winner of 50 races over his 13-year career in Winston Cup racing, says Earnhardt was a champ.

"In my opinion, and I've said this many times, he was the best race car driver that ever raced," Jarrett said. "He had a tremendous amount of God-given talent, and he worked hard to get the most out of it.

"Everybody respected the man for what he could do with a race car."

Jarrett says NASCAR doesn't need to delay or cancel the next race, which is at Rockingham, out of respect for Earnhardt.

"The world doesn't stop because we lose somebody," he said. "He wouldn't want it that way. He would've wanted his son to be out there racing. I guarantee you, that's what he would have wanted."

Jarrett has seen a lot of lives lost in his days following the sport. Earnhardt's death is the fourth in NASCAR series racing in the last 13 months.

"It's just so hard to accept they're not there anymore," Jarrett said. "When you lose someone who accomplished so much to get the sport where it is today, it's tough. The man was dedicated to what he did. Every time he strapped himself into the race car, he went as hard as he could."

Fans in the infield at the Daytona 500 were in disbelief.

"It's awful," said Kimberly Bennett, an Earnhardt fan who, with her dad, Neil, was wheeling away two souvenir tires from Earnhardt Jr.'s pit. "It makes your heart hurt, just thinking about it."

"It's put a shadow over this whole speedway," Neil Bennett, 41, said. "It's just bad that he couldn't see his cars finish 1-2-3. It's a tremendous loss to motor sports."

Kimberly Bennett drives Legends series cars in her native Stockton, Ga., and had recently painted her No. 21 car to look exactly the same as Earnhardt's No. 3, down to the black, white and red paint job.

"I liked the way talked when he came out of the car," said Kimberly, 15. "He always had something nice to say. And he was real competitive."

Jarrett says NASCAR doesn't need to re-evaluate its safety policy.

"NASCAR does a good job of doing what it can to make those race cars as safe as possible," he said. "I guess you can only do so much. Certainly we've seen race cars torn up worse than his was and watched (the drivers) walk away. What safety measures could have prevented his death? I have no idea."

Earnhardt had reached a stage in his life where he was content. He couldn't fight middle age, so he just accepted it and approached it with a grace that comes from a confidence that few ever obtain.

"Life changes as you go through it," Earnhardt said last month. "Sure you have to focus on different things at different times in your career. I'm 49 years old and I'm pretty comfortable in my life. Things don't really rattle me when someone comes up and says you're getting audited by the tax collector or you're losing a key member of the team or your sponsor is unhappy. What I do rather than get rattled is to analyze the situation, try to correct it or straighten the program out and go forward. A lot of things rattled me earlier in life, but as you get older you get more experience. You try to take things in stride and have a good time."