Kenny Wallace was a young racer in NASCAR. In the fall race at Talladega Dale Earnhardt was in 17th place with 5 laps to go. Kenny stuck with him and pushed him through the field and with less than 3 miles to go Dale was in the lead. Though not teammates Kenny stuck with Dale and Dale won the race. It was widely know in gratitude when Dale expanded his team Kenny would be on it...
It would be Dale's last win.
In February 2001 at the Daytona 500 in the last corner of last lap (of 200 laps) Dale was in fourth or fifth place when he made contact with Ken Schrader. In what looked like a relatively minor crash Dale would lose his life.
Kenny did not get to join Earnhardt's team and never won in the top tier of NASCAR. Ken Schrader regretted he tried to brake to avoid Dale's car as he feels to this day it his car was a foot farther up on Dale's Dale would have survived. He would not win in NASCAR's top tier again...