Fans honored Earnhardt by holding three fingers aloft on the third lap of every NASCAR Winston Cup race . Meanwhile , NASCAR 's television partners also went silent for the third lap , a practice that was repeated until the 2002 race at Rockingham , and in the 2011 Daytona 500 , ten years after his death . Later in 2001 , some of these gestures were also done in remembrance of the victims of the September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Death of Dale Earnhardt