On February 15, 1998, after 20 years of trying, racing great
Dale Earnhardt Sr. finally wins his first Daytona 500, the
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing season
opener and an event dubbed the “Super Bowl of stock
car racing.”

Driving his black No. 3 Chevrolet, Earnhardt recorded an
average speed of 172.712 m.p.h. and took home a then-
record more than $1 million in prize money.

Following his victory, crews from competing teams lined
the pit road at the Daytona International Speedway in
Daytona Beach, Florida, to congratulate Earnhardt, who
drove his car onto the grass and did several celebratory
doughnuts, or circles.         
       
        
        
   
       

Earnhardt’s win that February in 1998 represented his sole Daytona
victory. Tragically, on February 18, 2001, Earnhardt died at the
age of 49 during a crash at that year’s 43rd Daytona 500.

On January 27, 1965, the Shelby GT 350, a version of a Ford
Mustang sports car developed by the American auto racer
and car designer Carroll Shelby,was launched.

Carroll Hall Shelby
(January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012)

On January 26, 1979, “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a television
comedy about two cousins in the rural South and their
souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee,
debuted on CBS.

The show, which originally aired for seven seasons, centered
around cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke
(Tom Wopat) and their ongoing efforts to elude their nemeses,
the crooked county commissioner “Boss” Jefferson Davis Hogg
(Sorrell Booke) and the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
(James Best).

“The Dukes of Hazzard” was known for its car chases, stunts
and the General Lee.

The General Lee in action.

On January 4, 1996, General Motors announced at the Greater
Los Angeles Auto Show it will build an electric car, dubbed
the EV1, to be launched in the fall of that year.

When it debuted ,the EV1 was made available to consumers
in just two states, Arizona and California, and for lease-only,
as GM considered the development of electric car technology
to be ongoing.

During its years in production, from 1996 to 1999, around 2,500
EV1s were produced in total. In late 2003, GM announced it was
pulling the plug on the EV1 program and wouldn’t renew any
leases.