KANNAPOLIS — “One lap to go.”
Todd Parnell was feeling pretty good when those words rang out of his television set Sunday afternoon.
The general manager of the Kannapolis Intimidators baseball team was having a Daytona 500 party at his Mooresville home. Everyone was crowded around his new, big-screen TV (the “Parney-tron” as he calls it) and nothing could be finer in Mooresville, North Carolina.
There was one of his bosses, Dale Earnhardt, who had recently become a part-owner of the Intimidators, in third place. In second was Dale’s son. In first, was Michael Waltrip, the newest addition to Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.
“People were talking about how great it was that Dale did what he did — warding everybody off so the other guys could finish 1-2,” Parnell said.
Earnhardt’s strategy made Parnell think about the few meetings he had with Earnhardt.
“In the four months that I’ve known him, every time I’d walk away, I’d think, ‘Man, he’s a great guy. I can’t wait to get to know him better.’”
No one at Parnell’s party thought much about Earnhardt’s car ramming the wall. It didn’t look that bad.
“No, it didn’t,” Parnell said. “Everybody was focusing on Waltrip.”
Everyone just thought Dale was taking one for the team.
Then, the news spread. Earnhardt was dead.
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Dale Earnhardt always admitted he didn’t play sports growing up because he just wanted to get home and see what was going on in the family race shop.
“I’m a race car driver,” he would say.
Maybe that’s why he jumped at the opportunity to become a part owner of his hometown’s baseball team. When the press conference was held in late November, his attitude was almost euphoric.
“He was so laid back,” Parnell remembered. “He was so at ease, so funny, so much wanting to be involved. I remember somebody asking him if he wanted to play and he said he’d rather coach and tell them what to do.”
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Earnhardt won’t be able to do any of that now. And Parnell will not get to know him better.
Parnell cancelled his engagements Monday and simply sat in his office, fielding calls.
A little dazed. And wondering about the future without Dale Earnhardt.
“The phone starting ringing at 8:15 and it hasn’t stopped,” he said around 4 p.m.
Other GM’s in the South Atlantic League called. The Chicago White Sox, the team’s new affiliate, called. So did the Philadelphia Phillies. Over 30 baseball teams, to be exact.
Razor Shines, the new manager, dialed up Parnell from Texas. He had just coached his son’s team in a tournament.
“Now here’s a man who hasn’t coached the team yet and has never met Dale,” Parnell marveled, “and he was upset.”
Parnell kept repeating his words to every caller.
“It was like being numbed with novocaine all over your body,” he said. “I was shocked beyond belief.”
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So were former Boll Weevils, like Eric Schreimann, who is in camp with the Phillies, but spent parts of two years in Kannapolis.
A Missouri native, Schreimann didn’t pay much attention to NASCAR until playing here, the site of Earnhardt’s childhood home and garage.
“Being there a couple years, auto racing is such big news that you can’t help but be around it all the time and I’d catch myself following it,” Schreimann said.
Many of the Phillies players and coaches said they watched the Daytona 500.
“I didn’t think it was that dramatic,” Schreimann said of Earnhardt’s fatal crash on the last lap. “Later in the evening, I put the TV back on and was shocked. I got a little lump in my throat. I couldn’t believe it. It’s devastating.”
Jerry Martin, a Phillies minor league coach, was hitting instructor the last two seasons at Piedmont. Unlike most South Carolina natives, he didn’t follow auto racing.
“I never went to a race, but when my wife called me last night, the first thing she told me was about Dale,” Martin said. “I used to see Earnhardt bumper stickers, flags flying everywhere in Kannapolis. And even back home, I see (Earnhardt’s) No. 3 everywhere I’d turn. This is really sad.”
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The one question Parnell received the most Monday was the one he didn’t want: What will the Intimidators do in honor of Earnhardt?
“You can’t really plan for something if you’re still in a state of shock,” Parnell said. “We’re not really thinking about baseball today. We’re thinking of the family, hoping everybody is well.”
Another team owner, Larry Hedrick, put some thoughts on Intimidatorbaseball.com.
It was definitely a day of mourning, from the racing community to Earnhardt’s Chevy dealership to DEIand Richard Childress Racing.
“When people got the phone calls or when it came across the screen, there were so many people that in some way, were affected,” Parnell said. “And to a lesser extent, the people here.”
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Parnell was stirring in bed around 4 a.m. Monday. He woke up his wife, thinking he had dreamed that Dale Earnhardt had died. But he had not dreamed any of it, as wife Kelly informed him.
“It’s times like these that remind you what’s important in life,” Parnell said. “And that is life — and family and loving people. That’s the harsh reality when somebody good is taken from us.”
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Ronnie Gallagher covers the Kannapolis Intimidators for the Post. (The APcontributed to this story).
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