Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes Daytona

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- President Bush gave NASCAR's top drivers an executive order yesterday.

"Gentlemen, start your engines."

The sport's top drivers did that and more, giving 180,000 fans packed into the grandstands around the Daytona 500 speedway an exciting race that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won after taking the lead with just 18 laps to go.

Earnhardt's father, who was killed in a last-lap crash in 2001, "was over in the passenger side with me," the winner said during a jubilant celebration in Victory Lane. "I'm sure he was having a blast."

Mr. Bush, another man following in his father's footsteps, was clearly having a blast as well.

Courting the roughly 75 million racing fans, which include this year's version of "soccer moms" -- "NASCAR dads" -- the president drew vigorous cheers from fans packed around the 2.5-mile track.

Shunning his habit of leaving sporting events shortly after they start, the president stayed about 30 minutes longer than scheduled before departing for Tampa.

Mr. Bush got to take a slow half-lap around the flat shoulder of the track, whose banks rise so steeply that a stopped car would probably flip end-over-end down to the bottom.