DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Gordon enjoyed every bump Dale Earnhardt gave him -- especially the last one.
It came after The Kid won his second Daytona 500 in a breathtaking shootout with the man he called "The Master.""He drove into the side of me and just waved," Gordon said. "He was saying, 'This car is going to Daytona USA, and I'm going to put my mark on it.' "
In a ceremony today, Gordon's winning Chevrolet will go on display for the next year in the motorsports exhibit next to Daytona International Speedway. Earnhardt's 1998 car was there for the last year, and without Gordon it could have been two in a row.
But the 27-year-old driver made a bold pass with 10 laps remaining Sunday in The Great American Race, then held off the man he succeeded as stock car racing's best.
A crowd of 185,000 saw one of the best finishes in the 41-year history of the race: Earnhardt's black No. 3 car vs. Gordon's rainbow-colored No. 24.
"They got their money's worth," Earnhardt said.
What Gordon got was $2.1 million, including a $1 million sponsor bonus that made it the largest payoff in auto racing history.
But green wasn't the color he was thinking about as he beat Earnhardt to win the Winston Cup season-opener for the second time in three years.
"That's not the kind of black you want to see," Gordon said of the image of Earnhardt in his rearview mirror. "Keeping him behind me is one of the toughest things."
But Gordon did just that as he began his run at a record-tying third straight series title.
Gordon kept easing off the throttle, forcing Earnhardt to break his momentum, then got on the accelerator again and pulled away slightly. He permitted Earnhardt to close up to the point where he couldn't attempt a longer run that would give him the momentum necessary to pass.
Then came the final lap, one that would decide whether the seven-time series champion could duplicate the winning pass he made two days earlier to beat Mark Martin in an IROC all-star race.
With a record 33 victories on the track, the 47-year-old Earnhardt knows more about winning passes than anyone. But this time, it was not to be.
As the cars exited the fourth turn, Earnhardt made his move. He faked going to the outside, then tried the short route on the inside.
Gordon went to the bottom, so far down that Earnhardt was almost forced to veer left onto pit road. He had to back off, however, to avoid sliding across the grass that separates pit road from the last 200 yards of asphalt that Gordon rode to his 43rd career victory.
And it was actually Earnhardt who helped him get it. He bumped Gordon several times from behind as the two worked their way to the front of the pack toward the end of the race.
As a result, Gordon ended up in first -- and never gave up the lead.
"They came on the radio and said, 'Dale said he'd like to work with you to get up to the front,' " Gordon explained. "I was fine with that."
Once they got to the front it was every man for himself. But Earnhardt didn't have enough to get by Gordon.
"If I could have just got to Gordon in the corner, I might have got under him, but I just couldn't get there," he said. "I got beat."
He wasn't alone. Rusty Wallace, who led 104 of 200 laps on the 2 1/2-mile tri-oval, had things his way until Gordon succeeded in a risky pass 10 laps from the end.
He made it, then challenged Wallace on the low side as Mike Skinner went high. They rode three abreast -- always dangerous on the 31-degree banking -- and eventually Wallace fell back.
Then Gordon, just the sixth driver to win from the pole, beat Skinner down the backstretch to take the lead for good.