Race: Little E dominates in Dover

Earnhardt led much of the early stages of the race and was in position to capitalise on a late-race skirmish between race-leader Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace 55 laps from the finish. When the green flag waved, Earnhardt drove away from the field and that allowed him to wave the American flag on his victory lap after winning the MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 on Sunday.

It was the first NASCAR Winston Cup race since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11. The day was filled with emotion as NASCAR returned to action, with many of the stock cars carrying decals of the American flag on the hoods of their car. Ken Schrader's paint scheme had the entire car painted as an American flag.

The NASCAR community was united in its support of the war against terrorism and the crowd of 140,000 fans that filled Dover Downs International Speedway all waved American flags at the beginning of the race. The event was named in honour of American baseball player Cal Ripken Jr, who is retiring from the Baltimore Orioles at the end of this season.

"To see that reaction is really overwhelming," Earnhardt said after his popular victory. "It's good to be reminded sometimes of what to be thankful for. I was so excited. It was great carrying the flag around the track at the end of race."

It was Earnhardt's second victory of the season, the fourth of his Winston Cup career.

Rudd was leading on lap 345 when he received a tap on the rear bumper from Rusty Wallace and spun through the fourth turn, bringing out the 10th caution of the race. Wallace and Rudd, who tangled earlier this season at Bristol, had a heated confrontation in the garage area after climbing from their cars.

Asked what happened, Rudd said, "I don't know. We got damage there messing with `Rubberhead' Wallace. He hit us and bent our fender in. He took the race away from us. I used to respect that guy, but now I wouldn't give him two cents."

The two drivers crashed into each other after the August 25 race at Bristol, Tennessee.

"He was about to get us a lap down and he ran into me on the back straightaway," Wallace said. "I just stood on the gas and we got into each other in turn 4 and he spun out. His memory is pretty short, I'll tell you that.

"I called a guy a Conehead a long time ago. I guess maybe somebody else needs a name. I've got a lot of respect for him, but I didn't have any respect for him at Bristol when he got into me."

Earnhardt defeated Jerry Nadeau, who started 41st as a provisional and finished second.

"Last year at this race, we blew a tyre and ended up in the wall," Nadeau said. "To come out of here second after starting 41st, you can't ask for much more than that.

"We thought we could've won the race just from our position yesterday in `Happy Hour.' We just had such a great race car. But there late in the race, Junior just turned it on. He had a great car."

Rudd finished third followed by Winston Cup points leader Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

"It's really an emotional day," Earnhardt said after pulling away from the pack after a restart with seven laps remaining. "I'm real happy to win this race. It's a good boost for the crew, the Budweiser team and everybody involved."

With 53 laps remaining, polesitter Dale Jarrett emerged from pit road as the new leader and was followed by Nadeau, Earnhardt, Stewart and Rudd. Earnhardt, who led five times for 193 of the 400 laps, passed Nadeau for second place with 42 laps left.

Two laps later, Earnhardt blasted low past Jarrett through turn 4. With 30 laps to go, the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet held the largest lead of the day.

"We always end up with a great race car all day long," Earnhardt said. "And when it counts, we can't really capitalise. Today, we did.

"With about 125 laps to go, we started making progress in getting the car better. We had a bad pit stop that put it back to eighth place. I was kind of worried about being able to get back up there, but we were able to move back up to third position under the green flag. That's when Ricky spun. It was really unfortunate for him. It cost him the race or a chance to win the race, but we were able to capitalise on that. I don't think we would've if he hadn't spun."

It was the second emotional victory this season for Earnhardt. He also won the Pepsi 400 in July on the return of the Winston Cup cars to the track where his father, a seven-time series champion, was killed in the last turn of the last lap of the February 18 Daytona 500.

The winner averaged 101.559 mph in a race slowed 11 times by 71 laps of caution. There were 13 lead changes among seven drivers

The track continued its policy of tight security, which included a ban on coolers. No incidents were reported. Jeremy Mayfield crashed hard into the first-turn wall early in the race, was examined at Bay Hill Hospital and released.