RALEIGH, N.C. (EP) - Race track chaplain the Rev. Max Helton said the late racing legend Dale Earnhardt prayed with him before this year's Daytona 500 - as he did before most races.
    At Earnhardt's insistence, Helton generally joined him on the track near the racer's black No. 3 Chevy for prayer. Hours later, the 49-year-old Earnhardt would be dead, killed when his car hit the wall at 180 mph on the final lap of the race, just moments before his teammate Michael Waltrip and son Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished the race in first and second places respectively.
    Helton told the Associated Press that before the fateful Feb. 18 race, he met with Earnhardt, Earnhardt's wife Teresa, and Richard Childress, owner of the car. "We held hands through his window," said Helton, a Presbyterian pastor who is the founder of Motor Racing Outreach. "He says, 'Just pray that I'll be wise in putting the car at the right place at the right time...and be able to drive with wisdom.' And we did pray about that. And we did pray for safety."
    Helton said after prayer Earnhardt squeezed his hand as usual - but held it for a little longer than usual. Helton didn't think much of it at the time because the driver known as "The Intimidator" was always full of surprises. After once race, Helton recalls, Earnhardt "grabbed me by the neck and pulled my head in and said, 'Let's pray and thank God for this victory.' He was just that way."
    Helton told the Associated Press, "No one expected, I think, Dale Earnhardt to die in a race car. Maybe in a plane crash, maybe in some other way; but not in a racecar. Because he was so good and he's been through so many crashes and walked away from them that seemed a lot worse than the one he was in and which took his life."
    After doctors had done all they could for Earnhardt, Helton led the family and car owner in prayer beside the hospital's trauma table. "We were praying that God would give sustaining grace and that God would give his strength and wisdom," he said. "We were really hurting, and we talked about in our prayer, even confessed the fact that, yes, we're really hurt and we're deeply saddened by this, and we're asking for God's saving grace through this."
    Helton said he believes there's a sense in which Earnhardt's final prayer for safety was answered when God took him to heaven. "You know, that's the ultimate safety," Helton said. "He'll never hurt again."