That feeling of normalcy began to grow stronger in the weeks following the Dover race, and ultimately, the season continued and saw Jeff Gordon crowned champion for the fourth time in his Cup career when he clinched the crown at Atlanta.
However, there was still one race remaining — the rescheduled race at Loudon.
Coincidentally, Jeff Gordon was also in contention to claim the victory at Loudon, however the Hendrick Motorsports driver would spin out of the lead after a hard battle with Robby Gordon and watch as Robby went on to claim his first (and to this date only) oval victory of his motorsports career.
Robby Gordon donated all of his winnings to the victims of the 9/11 attacks — another gesture from a NASCAR community banding together in support of a country that had supported them since 1949.
A special moment for one team allowed for a bright moment to close a shadowy 2001 season. However, a year that was marred by the death of Dale Earnhardt and the tragedy of 9/11 did have an ultimately positive impact.
It brought the racing family together.
A feeling that began at Dover carried through the rest of the year and has continued ever since those dark days. Longtime Dover Int’l Speedway president and CEO Denis McGlynn described it in 2011 when reminiscing about the days following the attacks.
“It was the most difficult and yet most satisfying experience of my career,” McGlynn said of the Dover race on Sept. 23, 2001. “There was a feeling that day that I wish we could bottle up. Sadness and fear, but then excitement and pride, and ultimately relief that we got through the day OK.”
We got through the day, and then we got through the month, and then we got through the year. And slowly, as a community and a country, we began to move forward again.
The years have gone on, but no one has ever forgotten. Just as we as a community did in 2001, today we stand together in remembrance of those lives who were tragically lost that fateful day — firefighters, rescue workers, police officers and the workers and citizens who all went to work that day expecting to come home and never did.
We stand not as one, but together.
That was a positive feeling that came out of so many negatives on that fateful day.
It was not a day that changed us; it was a day which showed us who we really were, what we were capable of being as a united people and a country when we stand together as one.
It’s a feeling that on this day, many strive to remember and recapture while looking toward the future.
We will never forget.