How Jeff Gordon denied Dale Earnhardt a second Daytona 500 win

In 1999, the Daytona 500 had plenty of storylines to follow as the 51st season of NASCAR competition got underway. 

Chief among them was whether or not Dale Earnhardt, who had finally exorcised his Daytona demons and scored a long-waited Daytona 500 victory in 1998, could repeat as the winner of NASCAR's biggest race. 

After finishing third and fifth, respectively, in the 1998 running, both Jeremy Mayfield and Rusty Wallace were also considered favorites driving for Team Penske. So was Earnhardt's teammate at Richard Childress Racing, Mike Skinner. 

But the man who stole the spotlight on Feb. 14, 1999 hadn't been in the mix at all in the 1998 edition of the "Great American Race."

How Jeff Gordon won 1999 Daytona 500 

Jeff Gordon, who by the start of 1999 had already won the Daytona 500 (1997) and three Winston Cup Series championships (1995, 1997, 1998), had finished a disappointing 16th in the 1998 Daytona 500. He was out of contention late in the race and was forced to watch as Earnhardt took the win instead. 

In 1999, it was a different story. 

As the laps wound down, the usual Daytona suspects were near the front of the field: Skinner, Earnhardt and Wallace, among others. But Gordon, in his iconic rainbow No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, was also there, fighting for his second Harley J. Earl trophy. 

He earned it in dramatic fashion. 

Wallace led Gordon across the stripe with just 11 laps to go, but the latter was no longer content to ride in second. With the lapped and damaged car of Ricky Rudd hugging the apron, Gordon dove to the inside of Wallace entering turn 1 in an incredibly risky move that could've resulted in a huge crash. 

Instead, Gordon took the lead and the field somehow made it through clean. 

But Gordon wasn't out of the woods yet. Pulling into second after Gordon's pass was Earnhardt, widely considered the best superspeedway racer in NASCAR history and a driver who knew Daytona like the back of his hand.