DAYTONA BEACH -- Ed Hinton has covered auto racing for almost 30 years and had a long relationship with Dale Earnhardt. Here are some of Hinton's memories of Earnhardt, who died in a last-lap crash in Sunday's Daytona 500. Earnhardt was 49. NASCAR chairman Bill France, never before a man given to superlatives, said simply Sunday night, "NASCAR has lost its greatest driver." Beyond that, Dale Earnhardt is the greatest American driver ever to die racing -- and one of the most titanic heroes of the American commonfolk to die young. He was 49. He died still striving for an ...