A bungalow seems an unlikely setting for a legend to begin. Here, on the corner of Sedan Avenue and V-8 Street, in a neighborhood near a giant textile mill, a boy learned from his racing father some of the secrets that would make him a champion and a multimillionaire. Here, a high school dropout who helped transform a redneck hobby into a major sport first felt the pull of speed. Here, some 20 miles north of Charlotte, fans still mourning Earnhardt's death pay their respects. But like Elvis, dying before his time has transformed Earnhardt into a cultural and commercial phenomenon that seems destined to endure.
Today is the biggest day of the year in American automobile racing.
Earnhardt won 11 major races at Lowe's, his home track. The seven-time Winston Cup champion who was nicknamed The Intimidator won't be here, of course, but tens of thousands of his fans will be, dressed in Earnhardt attire and flying his black No. 3 flag from their pickups, RVs and cars. Some know Dale's mother, Martha, who still lives in that bungalow next to the garage at the corner of V-8 and Sedan. There's so many people here who have their little stories. Some of those tales involve Earnhardt's decision to buy part of Kannapolis's minor-league baseball team, now called The Intimidators, or the naming of a road Dale Earnhardt Boulevard.