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How Earnhardt's legacy shaped a decade

When Dale Earnhardt died in a NASCAR crash at Daytona in 2001 it changed everything about the sport. Charles Bradley looks back over a decade in America's biggest motor sporting enterprise.

The start of the new millennium will always be remembered for the day NASCAR lost its Elvis.

When Dale Earnhardt was killed on February 18 2001, in an innocuous-looking trip into the wall at Turn 4 with Ken Schrader as tried to protect a 1-2 for his own team of Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr on the final lap of the Daytona 500, NASCAR's leading light was extinguished. His end was as quick as the man himself, and the resonance of his loss was felt just as Ayrton Senna's had been in Formula 1 at Imola in 1994.

Earnhardt went by many names. Old Ironhead. The Intimidator. The man in black. Call him what you will, but he was undeniably the quintessential southern stock car driver of his generation; a true NASCAR driving genius.

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