Austin Dillon, driving the iconic No. 3 Chevrolet that late great Dale Earnhardt piloted for most of his career, won Sunday's Daytona 500 as Danica Patrick's NASCAR career ended in a crash.
Earnhardt was behind the wheel of No. 3 when he won his only Daytona 500 in 1998, and when he was killed in an accident on the final lap of the race three years later.
Dillon's victory, in the 60th running of "The Great American Race," came 17 years to the day of Earnhardt's fatal crash.
Dillon wasn't a factor in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet until the final lap in overtime when he got a push from Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. that helped him get to leader Aric Almirola.
Dillon spun Almirola then whizzed on by to give Childress, his grandfather, another iconic victory in the beloved No. 3.
"My grandfather has done everything for me and everybody knows it," Dillon said.
"There's a lot of pressure on me to perform because I've had a little bit of everything. But I like that pressure, the same with the No. 3, there's a lot of pressure behind it, but I'm willing to take it and go with it."
For Patrick, it was a proud but sad ending.
Stock car racing's most successful female driver fell victim to a multi-car crash mid-race.
"That's the gamble with Daytona," Patrick said of the crash. "It can go so well and it can go so awful. I'm just sad that it ended that way."
Until then, the 35-year-old had been competitive in what was not the fastest car on the track.
"I said earlier today that I feel like the whole thing was picture perfect ... but it just wasn't meant to be I guess today," she added.
One of the most marketable athletes in North America, Patrick will run one more race before calling it a career, competing in IndyCar's Indianapolis 500 in May.
In 2005, Patrick started and finished fourth as an Indy 500 rookie - at the time a record for a woman driver.
She finished third in 2009, the best result ever at the Brickyard for a woman driver, but has not competed in the event since 2011. Patrick is the only woman to win an IndyCar race and to start from pole at the Daytona 500.
Her popularity has waned in recent years, with Patrick unable to produce the results many expected when she made her much publicised jump from IndyCar to NASCAR in 2012.
However, Patrick said of her journey on the NASCAR circuit: "I am grateful for everything."
After a kiss on the grid from her boyfriend, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Patrick went after the season-opening race where she was pole sitter in 2013.
It didn't go according to plan though with the crash ending her NASCAR career on a sad note
Reuters
