went into 2001 as NASCAR's winningest active driver with 76 career victories. He had been NASCAR's winningest active champion since 1993 after Richard Petty's Retirement. He would capture 2 more titles in the process, winning in 1993 and 1994. His 1994 title win would tie Richard Petty for most Championships at 7. After finishing runner-up to Bobby Labonte at the end of 2000, Dale Earnhardt was poised to dominate the 2001 season and capture an all-time record 8th Winston Cup Championship. However, after Dale Earnhardt's unexpected death, his 2 close friends/greatest adversaries, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon, would now become the top 2 leaders in Winston Cup competition. Wallace would now become the winningest active driver with 53 career victories, and Gordon would now become the winningest active champion with 3 Winston Cup titles. In 22 full-time seasons, Dale Earnhardt would unexpectedly finish his career with 676 career starts, 648 consecutive starts, 7 NASCAR championships, 3 championship runner-up finishes, 14 top 5 points finishes, 20 top 10 points finishes, 22 poles, 76 career wins, 281 top 5s, and 428 top 10s. This was the first race that featured cars from Chrysler Motors (in this case, the Dodge manufacturing family) since 1985. 50th career pole for Bill Elliott. This was Elliott's fourth Daytona 500 pole in his career, and the first time driving a Dodge. This was Elliott's first pole since Richmond back in September 1997. As of 2020, Bill Elliott is the only driver to score his 50th career pole in the Daytona 500. Michael Waltrip won his first career points race in his 463rd career start, the longest drought of any driver in NASCAR history before getting their first win. Stacy Compton, the outside pole-sitter, scored his only Top 10 finish in his career in this race. Rookies Andy Houston, Casey Atwood, Buckshot Jones, Kurt Busch, Ron Hornaday Jr., and Jason Leffler made their first Daytona 500 appearances in this race. Only three of these rookies—Houston, Jones, and Hornaday Jr.—made the Daytona 500 for the only time, while Busch went on to win the 2017 Daytona 500. Tony Stewart took a wild ride in this race on lap 173, getting turned by Ward Burton, going over Robby Gordon, flipping twice, and landing on his teammate Bobby Labonte. As of 2022, this is the last race to not feature any active drivers. Kurt Busch is currently inactive due to concussion