"I knew how much it meant to Dale": When Richard Childress remembered Earnhardt's long-awaited NASCAR triumph

After 20 years of trying to win NASCAR's most prestigious race, seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt finally captured a Daytona 500 win in 1998. In what lap-by-lap announcer Mike Joy deemed "the most anticipated moment in racing," Earnhardt finally won the one race that eluded him over his illustrious career.

Richard Childress, Earnhardt's longtime car owner, helped deliver that win as he watched the North Carolina native wheel the #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to victory in "The Great American Race." In an interview via his team's website in September 2014, Childress reflected on his late driver's monumental win.

Childress jokingly explained how they won the "Daytona 499" a few times, in reference to how many times Earnhardt narrowly missed out on claiming a Daytona 500 victory. It was the one race that Earnhardt couldn't win, but he finally won it in 1998. Childress was quoted saying:

“That was big, I knew how much it meant to Dale and it just made RCR proud to be with him. We had won the Daytona 499 a few times, but to win the 500 was really big because it was something he really wanted on his resume.”

Earnhardt led a race-high 107 of 200 laps en route to victory on that 1998 day, holding off second-place finisher Bobby Labonte and third-place finisher Jeremy Mayfield. Ken Schrader finished fourth and Rusty Wallace rounded out the top five.

Prior to finally winning the Daytona 500, Earnhardt scored a record-tying seven Cup Series championships, which still holds up today as the most of all-time alongside Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson. His 76 Cup Series victories ranks eighth all-time. Earnhardt finished runner-up in the points standings in 2000 and was still at the top of his game entering his 23rd full-time season in 2001. However, Earnhardt tragically died in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500 at the age of 49.

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Richard Childress's grandson Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500 20 years after Earnhardt's win

The 1998 Daytona 500 wouldn't be the last time a #3 Richard Childress Racing-owned car would go to victory lane at "The Great American Race." In 2018, Austin Dillon, Richard Childress' grandson, won the Daytona 500 behind the wheel of the famed #3 car.

It marked 20 years since Earnhardt's triumphant Daytona 500 victory, a win he tried 20 years to capture. It was Dillon's second career win and the first Daytona 500 win for RCR since 2007 with Kevin Harvick. Dillon passed Aric Almirola for the win after contact on the final lap sent the latter crashing out of the race.

Dillon continues to pilot the #3 RCR Chevrolet full-time in the Cup Series and has done so since 2014. He has five career wins with the last one coming at Richmond last season.