Earnhardt's team faces dose of reality.(The Dallas Morning News)

FORT WORTH, Texas _ It has been a storybook season for NASCAR because you would never expect reality to feel this much like fiction.

A great driver and legend in the sport dies on the final lap of the Daytona 500 as his company's new driver, Michael Waltrip, and his son, Dale Jr., finish 1-2 ahead of him. A week later, Steve Park, another Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver, wins at Rockingham.

Two weeks later, rookie Kevin Harvick, Earnhardt's replacement, wins in Atlanta.

So the drivers come to Texas Motor Speedway where Dale Jr. won his first Winston Cup race a year ago. This time he earns the pole in qualifying, and halfway through Sunday's Harrah's 500, there are Park and Earnhardt Jr. in the 1-2 positions.

Another Sunday, another mind-blowing and possibly tear-jerking finish is surely at hand.

But it didn't happen, and maybe all of those recovering from Earnhardt's death, in particular his son, needed the dose of reality Dale Jarrett provided in taking the lead with six laps to go and beating Park to the finish line.

Earnhardt Jr. finished eighth after a bad late pit stop, and certainly a trip to victory lane would have been his first choice. Still, he left town with a sense of encouragement.