CONCORD — For Wade Roberts and most race fans, NASCAR minus 3 equals a whole lot less.

They miss that famous black No. 3 car.

All the drivers “used to come and try to race Earnhardt,” Roberts, of Pipestem, W.Va., said this week as he sat in the shade by his camper outside Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “Now it’s just 43 cars out there racing.”

Thousands of fans made their annual migration south, north, east or west this week and last for The Winston, the Coca-Cola 600 and the festivities surrounding those races.

But this year a cloud hangs over what could arguably be called the house that Dale built, since the Kannapolis native is as responsible as anyone for spreading stock-car racing from southern roots to international popularity.

Dale Earnhardt is not here this year, on his home track. He won’t ever be here again. The “man in black” died in a head-on crash into the wall near the finish line at the Daytona 500 in February.

Earnhardt was a racing star of the greatest magnitude, though many complained he gained his glory in less than stellar way.

He was as gritty a driver as racing has seen. He would grind past, and sometimes it seemed through, other cars, and packs of them, on his way to seven Winston Cup championships, matching Richard Petty’s record.

By all accounts, he raced like his NASCAR pioneer father, Ralph, taught him.

Earnhardt became a hero, especially to working-class people in Cabarrus County and for thousands of miles beyond.

He rose from being one of the kids in Kannapolis’ Car Town neighborhood — so called for streets with names like Sedan, Chrysler and V-8 — to being the first race-car driver featured on a Wheaties box.

That journey contributed to his popularity.

“This is an American success story,” Steve Orlosky, of Reading, Pa, said after touring Dale Earnhardt Inc. in Iredell County Friday. “Small-town kid makes it as big as you can make it.”

Kannapolis leaders recently started collecting private funds to build a $700,000 memorial to him. It may include a tribute wall and a statue, another place fans can remember the legacy. Years ago, the town named a road after its very own folk hero.

And, like all folk heroes, Earnhardt’s legend continues to grow, sometimes with layers of fiction wrapped around an onion of truth.

Just last Sunday, a Raleigh News & Observer columnist wrote that when Kannapolis wanted a field for its Class A baseball team, Earnhardt stepped in and built Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium.

Of course, Earnhardt did become a minority owner last year in the local minor league franchise. It was even renamed the Kannapolis Intimidators after him. But Rowan County and the city of Kannapolis built the stadium.

That Earnhardt has been canonized should come as no surprise. His fans are legion. Even those who considered themselves anti-fans, when he was still tearing around racetracks, respected him.

Most of the temporary residences in the camper cities surrounding the speedway this week bore some tribute to Earnhardt. Fans hoisted black No. 3 flags beneath the flags of their own favorite drivers.

“Actually, I’m a Jeff Gordon fan,” said Joe Ridgewell, of Windsor, Ontario. “But everyone was a fan of Earnhardt.”

And now many of them cheer for NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., one of Earnhardt’s two sons. Kerry Earnhardt races in the ARCA series, driving a car sponsored by the Intimidators.

Numerous motor homes and campers parked in neat rows flew a flag for Earnhardt and one for the Earnhardt Jr., who drives for one of three Winston Cup teams owned by his father’s company, Dale Earnhardt Inc.

“Since Earnhardt isn’t there, we’ll pull for Dale Jr. and his team,” said Dan Storosko, who also drove down from Ontario, Canada, where he said NASCAR racing has an enormous following. “I think the fans are looking for a leader, and they want to make him a leader like his father was.”

Others said they would also support Michael Waltrip and Steve Park, who drive the other two Winston Cup cars owned by Dale Earnhardt Inc., now headed by Earnhardt’s wife, Teresa.

Thousands made pilgrimages this week from the speedway to the massive complex on N.C. 136 near Mooresville.

Orlosky and Donna Yetter, also of Reading, Pa., stood in line for 112 hours waiting to get inside the part of the business open to the public, which includes displays and memorabilia on sale in the gift shop.

This week was to be their honeymoon, but they had to delay the wedding and now count this as a pre-nuptial trip. An Earnhardt fan, Orlosky has been to Concord races six years, but this was his first visit to Earnhardt Inc.

He marveled at the continued outpouring of emotion by Earnhardt’s fans.

“You knew he was a phenomenon,” Orlosky said.“But you didn’t know it was this overwhelming.”

Admiring as they are, fans say they respect the Earnhardt family’s wish for privacy.

“I would be interested in going, but not right now”to pay respects at the driver’s final resting place, which has been kept from the public, said Gary Thomas, who came from Des Moines, Iowa, with four buddies for the race and visited the business Friday.

Thomas volunteered some very unfavorable and unprintable comments about the Orlando Sentinel newspaper’s request to see autopsy photos of Earnhardt.

Bill Woodhall, also of Iowa, said of Earnhardt: “I’ve already seen what he can do, now let’s leave him alone.”

Some fans said they can’t even think about picking one, or even two drivers to favor now that the man they followed around the track every week is gone.

“I don’t think I’ll ever really have a No. 1 guy,” said Reggie Thomas, of Pasadena, Md. “We’ll just come down every year and hope we have a good race and a safe one and root for all the drivers.”

Sitting shirtless in the shade of a rented camper’s roll-out canopy, Thomas said he plans to buy an RV next year, after retiring from UPS. He wants to drive to some of the races out West that he’s never seen in person before.

But they won’t be the same, now, those races. All the NASCAR events he attends, will be missing something, something that equaled racing for a whole lot of fans.

“Everybody keeps looking for that black No. 3 to be out there,”Thomas said. “Then it kind of hits you — it’s not going to be out there any more.”

Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com .