NASCAR has truly never been the same since the tragic loss of Dale Earnhardt.
No one raced like Dale Sr. before he came along, and one could argue that no one has raced like him since. Earnhardt’s style helped him win a ton of races in his career that spanned from 1975 to 2001. Not only did it earn him nicknames like “The Intimidator” and “The Man In Black,” it also led to 76 victories across the almost three decades he suited up and most famously drove the No. 3 car.
And believe it or not, this past year’s Daytona 500 was the 24th anniversary of his tragic death in 2001.
Just four months prior, Kenny Wallace had helped Dale Sr. to what became the legendary driver’s final career win. Most NASCAR fans are familiar with the story of the 2000 Talladega race, where Dale took the lead and never looked back after climbing a staggering 17 spots in only four laps. That’s the lasting memory that most people remember of Dale Earnhardt.
And it’s why there was a lot of hype surrounding “The Intimidator” when he came into the Daytona 500 the following year. You couldn’t ever count Dale out in the big races, and many thought he had a great shot to win again at Daytona.
When a Fox Sports reporter asked Dale Earnhardt about his chances before the race, the driver of the No. 3 car gave this response that now sounds rather eerie with hindsight:
“Well we got a good shot at it. Got a good race car. I wasn’t really excited about the car yesterday afternoon during the last practice, but the car has come around. I think it’s going to be okay. We’ve got a good engine in it. There’s a little wind today. Real exciting… I think it’s going to be some exciting racing, we’ll see something you probably haven’t ever seen on FOX.”
Of course, that tragic day was the first ever NASCAR Cup Series points race televised on Fox Sports.
That turned out to be one of the last (if not the last) interviews that Dale Earnhardt ever did.
That arguably became NASCAR’s most infamous day. Most people who were around at the time can tell you exactly what they were doing when John F Kennedy was assassinated. Same goes for Martin Luther King Jr. We all remember where we were when September 11th happened, and NASCAR fans will never forget where they were watching when the sport said goodbye to its greatest icon.
And most people who remember watching the race will tell you that Dale’s fatal wreck wasn’t even the worst collision of the race. On lap 173 of the Daytona 500 in 2001, a massive wreck caused the No. 20 car – driven by Tony Stewart – to go airborne, flipping and landing on top of another vehicle.
That wreck spawned yet another unsettling comment from the driver of the No. 3 car. Earnhardt’s team owner, Richard Childress, recalls talking to his driver on the radio during the red flag, and Dale Sr. saying this:
“Richard, if they don’t do something to these cars, it’s going to end up killing somebody.”
Unfortunately we know how the story ends just 20 laps later, but Earnhardt’s death was the catalyst for NASCAR to make sweeping safety improvements over the next few years. They immediately began mandating the use of HANS Devices, a head and neck restraint that protects drivers heads from sudden movements in the event of a crash. And SAFER barriers were installed at all NASCAR tracks to help absorb the force of the cars hitting the wall.
Luckily, NASCAR hasn’t suffered a fatal crash since Earnhardt passed away in 2001, a testament to the safety advances made after his death. But unfortunately, it took the sport’s biggest tragedy to get the racing world to step up and accept that changes needed to be made – something that Earnhardt eerily warned about just 20 laps before his death.
Raise Hell, Praise Dale.
