This week marks the 25th anniversary of the death of the legendary Dale Earnhardt on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. The seven time NASCAR Cup Series champion passed on February 18th, 2001, NASCAR hasn’t been the same since.
I think anyone who was a fan back then would pretty much agree with that, though his legacy obviously lives on and he remains a pop culture legend and the GOAT race car driver known around the world.
It’s pretty amazing what his legacy is considering he was just a small town boy from Kannapolis, North Carolina who had big dreams to follow in his father’s footsteps, and he died doing what he loved which is poetic in some dark and twisted way, I think.
Tragically, Dale Sr. was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 after hitting the wall and suffering a basilar skull fracture. The Intimidator managed to win an incredible 34 races at Daytona during his NASCAR career, including the 1998 Daytona 500. He was so good at these big tracks that it was always said that he could “see the air” moving around the cars, knowing exactly where to go to get the best aerodynamic advantage and move (or stay) up front.
It was a shocking day, though, something no one was obviously anticipating or prepared for, and it sent people across the United States, particularly in the South, into mourning. I mean, people took it extremely personally, and he really was a beloved figure that people identified on a very deep level.
We’ve probably all seen what happened after the wreck: Ken Schrader, who was also caught up in the wreck, walked over to Earnhardt’s car and began frantically signaling for medical attention as soon as he looked inside. Schrader knew it was bad, and so did Dr. Steve Bohannon, the trauma doctor at the speedway that afternoon. During a recent interview with OutKick, Bohannon recalled seeing Earnhardt and knowing that he was gone immediately:
“I think everybody knew at the scene. Everybody knew that he had passed away at impact. I knew all the medics, and they shook their heads when they saw me walk up… When the car stops, the body keeps moving. And when your body quits moving, your brain keeps moving and decelerates inside your skull, and the forces are tremendous.”
The official cause of death was a basilar skull fracture, the fourth deadly accident from the same injury in less than a year.
It was such a sad day, and one of Dale’s heroes, racing icon Richard Petty, was at the track that day, and he recalled his own personal experience, thinking at first it was “just another wreck,” as he explained in an interview with Forbes:
“Yes, I was right here at the racetrack. When it happened, I just thought it was another wreck.”
He says he was “stunned and saddened” by his loss, and of course, they shared a very special common bond as champions, as they’re joint holders of the record for most NASCAR Cup Series championships, with seven titles each, a record that remains to this day:
“Like all of the NASCAR family, I was stunned and saddened by the loss of Dale Earnhardt. We shared a common bond in championships as well as a mutual respect. Our family has raced against his family since this sport began, going back to when my Dad and I raced against Ralph Earnhardt.
My thoughts and prayers and that of the entire Petty organization are with Teresa, Kerry, Kelly, Dale Jr., Taylor and the rest of the Earnhardt family.”
Petty also talked about how many more wrecks now happen at superspeedways like Daytona has increased exponentially, pointing out that a lot of them start out on simulators and things of that nature, thinking doing it for real will be a similar experience, but in many cases, they’re naive to the dangers of racing on huge tracks like that:
“You’ve got a different society now, these kids coming in at 18- or 20-years old. They get on computers and simulators and stuff, and they think they’re racecar drivers, you know what I mean? So when they get in the car, they still think they’re sitting there with that [simulator] safety.
They don’t know the dangers, didn’t come through the ranks of running on Saturday nights and turning over 14 times, going through fences and seeing other drivers doing the same. In fairness, some have come up through go-karts and Legend cars, but it’s nothing like going to the big time.”
It’s true, and it’s just the way the sport has changed as it has gotten bigger, as he explained:
“Another thing is parity. Out of 40-some cars in a race, at least 30 are capable of winning under the right circumstances. The top-10 can be racing, and maybe you are running 11th half-a-lap behind.
If there’s a big wreck in front of you, first thing you know you’ve won the race. And that’s the way it’s been for a while.”
Petty is still very active in the NASCAR world, often seen at races and doing interviews often, and I have to imagine Dale would be very similar in that way if he was still around… and I have to also imagine he’d be pretty vocal about how he felt about the changes that have been made and the good and the bad of how the sport evolved, too.
Speaking of Petty, just last year, he appeared in Luke Combs’ music video alongside Dale Earnhardt Jr. for Luke’s song “Back In The Saddle”:
