I still think of Dale at times and his many post race interviews explaining how some driver he was racing managed to wreck, or if he happened to be in victory lane the way he always thanked Speedy and the Boys back at the shop. After he passed you might say NASCAR kind of drove off and left me. Partially because there had been a spate of fatalities in NASCAR preceding Dales fatal crash including Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr both at Loudon and serious life changing injuries for Ernie Irvin, Ricky Craven and Steve Park.
With nobody left to torment Jeff Gordon and the added influx of young talent, it was easy to slowly step away from watching the sport over the next couple years. About 5 or 6 years ago I started getting back into watching. NASCAR is loaded with talent, the cars and tracks are safer, the points system having been tweaked several times makes sense and is more fair in rewarding performance and helps keep the races compelling.
