The world lost the greatest driver to ever do it when Dale Earnhardt passed away 25 years ago (February 18th, 2001) and 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.
Of course, many of the more intimate details of what happened immediately following his wreck and time in the hospital have been kept private, though Dale Earnhardt Jr. has spoken some about that tragic day over the years.
But in an extensive new interview with Outkick, Dr. Steve Bohannon, who was the trauma doctor at the Speedway that afternoon, opened up about what it was like to work as the “Medical Director of Emergency Medical Services” on that tragic day. He was working his first Daytona 500 race, very new to the position in general, and was in Turn 2 on the final lap when Dale hit the wall coming out of Turn 4. He says he knew right away that Dale was gone:
“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.”
Of course, they kept hope alive in spite of that, and Earnhardt was taken to nearby Halifax’s trauma center, and Dr. Bohannon sat in the back of the ambulance with him and did everything he could to save him, from intubating him to administering IVs. Once they got to the hospital, Dr. Bohannon says they worked on him for at least 30 minutes.
When Teresa Earnhardt showed up, he says she was “composed,” just trying to push past security to see her husband. Bohannon says she wasn’t emotional at all, just watching as they continued to work on her husband, hoping by some miracle he would survive:
“She was trying to push her way into the trauma room, and security was holding her back. I saw who it was, and I said, ‘No, let her in.’ So we let her in, and she stood in the back of the trauma room, and was very composed, and didn’t get emotional. She just let us do our jobs, and watched. I felt like it was important – I’ve always felt like it was important – for the family to see that everything is being done for their loved one.”
Sadly, he passed away that day, and Teresa stayed long enough to watch them begin to prepare his body for the coroner, requesting that they leave his wedding ring on:
“She said, ‘No, leave it on,’ and so they looked at me, and I said, ‘Whatever she wants.’ So, they left it on him. I’m sure she was crying, you know, when we were done, and she came over and held his hand, and we gave her some time there alone, and I left.”
So much has changed in the sports since then, as NASCAR has done a ton since this tragic day to make the sport so much safer for the drivers, and while Bohannon is retired and no longer follows the sport at all, though every now and then, he remembers this horrific day and how much it impacted the world. We lost an icon that day, and though this tragic day is important to remember and reflect on, he will always be known for the kind of racer he was on the track, and the man he was off of it.
Today, Fox Sports released a short film titled We’ve Lost Dale Earnhardt: 25 Years Later, and if you’re a fan of #3, it’s a must-watch.
And if you somehow never watched the Earnhardt series on Amazon Prime video, which was produced in part by Dale Jr., there’s a lot of information on this tragic event and how it affected so many around him.
