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How Dale Earnhardt, now 20 years gone, saved NASCAR

If you were going to make a Mount Rushmore of American badasses, there's only one real question: Who are your other three after Dale Earnhardt?

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Daytona 500, where Earnhardt lost his life in a last-lap wreck. And yet, even now, his ghost hovers over NASCAR. Even if you're not a NASCAR fan, you know his name ... and if you never got to know him when he was wheeling America's raceways, let me give you a little sense of what we all miss.

Earnhardt wasn't just the fastest driver in the garage, with seven championships to his name.