February 18, 2001.
That day was supposed to be the dawning of a new era for NASCAR. For one, it was the start of a new TV contract that the sport signed with FOX, TNT, and NBC. Second, it was the start of the 2001 season with the sport's biggest race in the Daytona 500. And third, it was to be the second race of a superspeedway aerodynamics package that actually debuted the following October at Daytona's sister track at Talladega with fantastic results.
But instead, it turned out to be one of the darkest day's in the sport's history. I sure haven't forgotten about the events of that day, and I don't think I ever will. It was supposed to be the greatest day in Michael Waltrip's life, as he recorded his first NASCAR Winston Cup victory in his 463rd career start with his brother, 1989 Daytona 500 champion Darrell Waltrip, calling him to victory in the FOX booth. Waltrip drove the #15 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, a car owned by Dale Earnhardt.
Instead, NASCAR and millions of its fans were mourning the death of the sport's biggest face and namesake. On the final lap of the race, coming out of the fourth and final turn, Earnhardt was running in third place, watching two of the cars he owned run first (Waltrip) and second (Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet) respectively and was wrecked trying to protect third place from Sterling Marlin, Rusty Wallace, and Ken Schrader. Earnhardt made contact with Marlin's Dodge Intrepid, and his car shot up the 31-degree banking and slammed head-on into the wall, taking Schrader with him.
At first, the crash didn't appear to be that bad. But when Schrader climbed out of his car, he walked to the driver's side of Earnhardt's wrecked car, and frantically gestured for the paramedics to get to Earhnardt, indicating that he was badly injured. While Waltrip was celebrating his victory, Earnhardt was getting cut out of his car and was getting transported by ambulance to the hospital. Attempts to resuscitate Earnhardt were unsuccessful, as he was pronounced dead at 3:16 pm MST. At a press conference about two hours later inside the Daytona International Speedway's media center, NASCAR president Mike Helton stepped in front of a throng of reporters and made the grim announcement:
"This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements I've personally ever had to make. But...after the accident in Turn 4 at the end of the Daytona 500...we've lost Dale Earnhardt."
-NASCAR president Mike Helton
Earlier in the race, a spectacular crash involving Tony Stewart caused the race to be red-flagged for a brief period of time to clean up the track from other cars that were involved in the crash, which also eliminated another Dale Earnhardt-owned entry driven by Steve Park (#1 Pennzoil Chevrolet). During that red flag period, Earnhardt was communicating on the radio with his longtime owner Richard Childress.
In the following clip near the end, Childress describes what he and Earnhardt were discussing, and it had something to do with safety.
In the days following the tragedy, tributes from all over the country and the world started pouring in. Earnhardt's memorial service was broadcast on all local news stations in the Charlotte, North Carolina area (because most of the NASCAR teams are based around Charlotte). One of my friends was living in Charlotte at the time of the tragedy and he told me that it was like a sitting President of the United States had died (as in almost eerily reminiscent to the entire nation mourning the loss of President John F. Kennedy in 1963).
But the racing had to go on because Earnhardt would have wanted the racing to continue. And almost everybody associated with Earnhardt paid tribute to their fallen friend in their own way by winning at least once in 2001. The following week at Rockingham, North Carolina, Steve Park paid tribute to his late boss with this exciting finish against defending series champion Bobby Labonte:
Three races later, Earnhardt's successor, Kevin Harvick, was engaged in a fierce battle for the win with Jeff Gordon at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was a race where Earnhardt would have entered as the defending champion:
And then the series returned to Daytona for the Pepsi 400. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was returning to the site of perhaps the darkest day of his life, and it was safe to say that his father might have been riding shotgun with him on that July night.
Finally, on the six-year anniversary of Earnhardt's fatal accident, it was Harvick coming out of nowhere on the last lap to battle with race leader Mark Martin. And as mayhem ensued behind them, Harvick and Martin duked it out for the win.
In terms of how the cars changed, the 2007 season was the year NASCAR debuted its new "Car Of Tomorrow" platform and phased it into use over the course of that season. The car was mostly built with one thing in mind: safety in the wake of Earnhardt's death. Before the car was rolled out, NASCAR mandated that all drivers wear a head-and-neck restraint system, with the HANS device being the most popular of them. The cockpit of the car is now bigger as well, as the car is two inches taller and four inches wider than the old car. The driver's seat was also shifted more to the center of the car to reduce the risk of injuries if that side of the car was struck at high speed. The tracks have changed in regards to safety as well. Every track on the Sprint Cup circuit has SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reduction) barriers installed at every track
Perhaps the greatest test of NASCAR's safety innovations coming full circle happened during a qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway in 2008, where rookie Michael McDowell tested out everything.
Photo credit: autoevoltion.com
