Teresa Earnhardt, always quick to leave the grid and get back to the motorcoach in time to watch the start of races, instead uncharacteristically lingered. He also threw his arms around Kyle Petty, the man whom he worked so hard to avoid throughout the 2000 season after Petty's 19-year-old son, Adam, was killed in a Busch Series practice crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on May 12, mortally wounded with a basilar skull fracture. His son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., had also continued the family name in racing. Schrader was sandwiched between the concrete barrier and the nose of Earnhardt's ride. It sucks that he can't be here to meet my family, to know where everybody is. safety improvements in the sport over the past 20 years, which saved Ryan Newman in a scary crash at the 2020 Daytona 500. How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style, Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season, Six key themes to follow in 2022 But that hug never came. Read Part I on Earnhardt's lasting legacy, Part II on the safety culture before Earnhardt's crash, and Part III on the day of the Earnhardt crash. He died after crashing during the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001. When Earnhardt dropped low in front of Marlin, he hadn't completely cleared the nose of the No. It suggested that, had Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin Jr. and Tony Roper worn head and neck restraints, they would likely still be alive. And Tony never really stopped, did he? . "And now I'm thinking, 'I wonder what's gonna happen with all this stuff?' When Dale Earnhardt died in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, it changed NASCAR forever. Before stepping out of the NASCAR trailer, Helton asked his colleagues, "How in the world do I say that we've lost Dale Earnhardt? That's always stayed with me. 20 machine took a hard right-hand turn and drilled the concrete wall with a perfectly centered shot from the nose of his Pontiac. Behind Helton sat NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. in the "crow's nest." THE BIBLE VERSE was taped to the instrument panel of Dale Earnhardt's Chevy Monte Carlo when it veered into the Turn 4 wall at the end of the 2001 Daytona 500. "We all knew that the biggest threat to keep one of us from winning the race was Sterling [Marlin]," Waltrip says of those frantic final 17 laps, running first with a mirror full of teammate Earnhardt Jr. and the black Chevy of Senior zigzagging back and forth to keep two different lines of cars at bay, the inside line led by Marlin and Rusty Wallace and the group in the outside lane led by Schrader. He made eye contact with Schrader, who was behind a curtain being examined. The chances of someone dying again behind the wheel of a NASCAR race car are almost certain. The 24-year-old thought about himself, his own racing career and his life as a fatherless son. It was only my third time covering the Daytona 500 for The Charlotte Observer. Dale Earnhardt's death jolted the system. Now, NASCAR continues to flourish as it drives on into a bright future. We compete and sometimes we fight and we want to beat each other on the racetrack, but this is a small group of people who do what we do. There were 12 to 15 medical personnel in the room, each doing their task amid the controlled chaos. His own teams cars, driven by good friend Michael Waltrip and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr, finished 1-2 on a day that should have been filled with great joy. "I stretched my neck so hard," the eventual 2001 Cup champion said. NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt died 20 years ago, in a last-lap crash at the 2001 Daytona 500. Richard Childress, the owner of Earnhardts NASCAR team, has declined to state publicly where the car is. I dont like that, thats the kind of crash that hurts you. Richard Petty's legendary barrel roll down the Daytona frontstretch in 1988 brought about the Petty Bar, and the Earnhardt Bar appeared after Dale Sr.'s 1996 Talladega crash that fractured his shoulder and sternum. The chassis used were tube chassis left over from when NASCAR was the Grand National Series. 8. Over its first two decades, the R&D Center has overseen the installation and evolution of SAFER barriers (though full-wall coverage has still moved at a sometimes frustratingly deliberate crawl). According to the official accident report, Earnhardt's Monte Carlo was traveling 160 mph when it blasted into the bare concrete wall at the 1 o'clock angle and immediately decelerated by 42-44 mph. It often leads to major bleeding in that area. How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory, How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022, How NASCAR is preparing for 2022 car We'll find more and more flaws with what we have today, just like we did in the past.". The evening before the 2001 Daytona 500, Earnhardt held a business meeting with old friend and rival Terry Labonte. Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season, How NASCAR had to learn a harsh lesson ahead of Next Gen arrival, How NASCAR had to learn harsh lesson He arrived at Earnhardt's car less than 10 minutes after the crash, after crews had already cut the roof off the car and a surgeon stationed closer to the scene had already been administering resuscitation efforts. Even the walk to get to that point had been different. To stop suddenly at a high rate of speed is often disastrous and sometimes deadly. And I said, 'Do what she says,'" Bohannon says. Crew chief Tony Eury Sr. was also his uncle, handpicked by Earnhardt Sr. to lead his son's career. Once its extensive crash report was released which included a number of investigation avenues and crash scenario re-enactments it embarked on a number of projects that included the creation of an R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina. The drivers of these cars have to have unshakable confidence in themselves. Bohannon was still in the trauma room, watching a technician prepare Earnhardt's body for the mortuary. AFTER FIVE DECADES of slow-moving, reactionary safety efforts, NASCAR now doles out safety-based changes and mandates at a relatively superspeedway-like pace. Richard Childress, the owner of Earnhardt's NASCAR team, has declined to state publicly where the car is. When we look back on Feb. 18, 2001, the day Earnhardt died at the end of that race, we find so much of both -- personal recollections about conversations that feel so foreboding now, and moments when so many racers chose to stick with the norm, even amid the constant sounds of safety experts' warnings, ambulance sirens and funeral parlor organs. "I would not be an alive racing driver today sitting here," he says. The sons of those other racers with roll bars named for them, Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt Jr., catch themselves watching Newman's crash and still can't believe it. Kyle is the grandson of Lee Petty, winner of the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959, and son of Richard, NASCAR's biggest pre-Dale Earnhardt superstar. 'The ones that look really bad are never really bad, and the ones that don't look bad can be bad,'" Petty explains. He was 49. "I thought for us to be able to deliver it to Fox on their premiere Daytona 500," Helton says, "was everything we wanted it to be for the audience that was watching it on television.". "This goes back to how Dale Sr.'s death impacted the industry, an ongoing effort that never stops, hoping to know what we don't know as soon as possible," Patalak says with his hand resting on a chunk of black foam, just one block in a lineup waiting to endure hydraulic press torture. Earnhardt died of a basilar skull ring fracture, the same injury that had killed three other NASCAR drivers - Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper - over the previous eight months. The restart came on Lap 180, with 20 to go. When asked for specifics about head and neck restraints, soft wall barriers and other potential safety mandates, Helton replied, "We simply are not going to react for the sake of reacting. But he had might as well have been conjuring the feelings of the entirety of NASCAR. This is Part III of a four-part series on the life, death and safety legacy of Dale Earnhardt, 20 years after his fatal crash at the 2001 Daytona 500. And on yet another TV is footage of a high-speed camera from last fall's Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval event, pointed at a Cup Series driver as his car bounces off a backstretch barrier. Dale Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001 was the beginning of what would become a battle over his autopsy photos pitting public records and openness in . As the car turned around backward, a pair of roof flaps snapped into place, designed to keep the 3,400-pound machine from going airborne. On another monitor is a computer simulation of a 1 o'clock-angle collision with a newly designed front bumper. 3 car, which became the de facto smoking gun. A broken collarbone at Talladega and Earnhardt's rushed return had taken away his feel for the car. Not even when Patalak is trying to squeeze in some Sunday family time. "Truthfully, when I took a look at him in his car, when you have no signs of life after a major blunt trauma, major car accident, the chances of being resuscitated and survival from that are close to zero, but we try heroic measures.". One circuit later, he allowed Michael Waltrip to slide by, taking Earnhardt Jr. with him. I saw it on TV and it didnt look that bad just another tough crash. The head-on collision meant his head had traveled straight forward, stopped before it could extend into a deadly head whip. Darrell Waltrip was there too, with a growing number of NASCAR officials. In an interview shortly before his death in 2014, Melvin recalled that meeting: "I figured that I would be shown the door. Earnhardt suffered a broken ankle, broken ribs, a fractured sternum and cuts to his scalp and chin. He called time on his 26-win Cup career in 2017, and successfully transitioned to a media career, both as a commentator with NBC and a host of his hugely successful podcast, The Dale Jr Download. She had arrived with her stepson, Earnhardt Jr. On the night of Feb. 17, 2020, while he was being carried from the Daytona racetrack in an ambulance to nearby Halifax Health Medical Center, that car was towed back to the track's garage. Photo by: F. Peirce Williams / Motorsport Images. He's in every roll bar, seat belt, HANS device and wall that surrounds them. "I walked out after that. "Blaise was one of my best friends," says Jimmie Johnson, who made his Cup Series debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway that same week. The guys that first staggered door bars and first put foam inside of a helmet instead of leather. I've got it all! In 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr., stock-car racing's top driver, was killed in a crash in the final turn of the final lap of the Daytona 500. But two hits from onrushing cars punted Stewart's car into the air. It was worldwide. The calls were from stock car drivers and teams. He had a host of other injuries, including fractures to his ribs and left ankle, but he was dead instantly from the damage to his head, which included a ring fracture of the base of his skull, via Autopsy Files. To the 17 million people watching at home, the crash looked like nothing, especially compared to Stewart's spectacular accident a half-hour earlier. The car that had been in the lead with the checkered flag in sight was upside down on the infield grass, twisted and on fire as safety crews crawled all over it, frantically working to save the unconscious driver inside, 42-year-old Newman, hanging limp from his seat belts. On February 18, 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr. lost his life at the 43rd running of the "Great American Race" following a collision on the outside wall at Daytona International Speedway. We're gonna do this together,'" recalls Dale Earnhardt Jr. "He didn't do that before races. - Proverbs 18. The NASCAR chairman asked him the same question about whether the HANS device would have saved Earnhardt. But then, in 2001, we were going to them and saying, 'OK, talk to us.'". I talked him into it. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the . But I want to see him and hear what his opinions are about our family. In it, he recalled: I couldnt wait for Dale to get to Victory Lane. The seven-time NASCAR Cup champion, known as the fearless Intimidator, died at the age of 49 after his famed #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo crashed at Turn 4 on the last lap of the Daytona 500. "But I think the energy level of people wanting to talk about it was at an all-time high after [Earnhardt's death on] Feb. 18, and not just in the garage area; it was global. On May 1, while NASCAR was still two weeks away from emerging from quarantine, a list of competition adjustments was issued, based on the Newman findings. Driving a race car, whether it is NASCAR, Formula One, or another type, is far more than just going around in an oval. There were really highly talented companies and individuals globally that wanted to figure out how to close the gap on the safety element after the 18th.". His car slid alongside Earnhardt's and they stopped nose-to-door in the infield grass. In the waiting room, Childress was with other family and crew members. At the start of the 2001 All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Jeff Gordon hit the Turn 1 wall at the dreaded 1 o'clock angle but walked away. . My life was probably millimeters away or a half a G away, however you want to call it, but it's there and it saved my life," Newman says in an interview for "E:60 Presents -- Intimidator: The Lasting Legacy of Dale Earnhardt.". "Post-Dale Earnhardt's passing, that conversation shifted. During driver introductions for the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt spoke with Winston Kelley of MRN. ", "Being proactive is taking what you know, and cycling through what you know, to try to figure out what might happen and what you could do to prevent something from happening," Helton, who moved on from the NASCAR presidency in 2015 but still serves on the board of directors, explains two decades later. "It's a credit to all the people in the industry," he continues. I thought I had this path and this direction, with him, to do what we were going to do. We've got good cars, man. "When I realized that was the way that this was going to go, that Dad was gone, I turned and saw [Earnhardt's PR representative] J.R. Rhodes and ran to him. His steering wheel had likely saved his life. Now, it could have cost me. The last time any of us saw that Roush Fenway Racing-constructed Mustang, we thought we were staring at a coffin. "People didn't realize how hurt Dale had been back in 1996 and then again in '99," recalls Richard Childress, car owner for six of Earnhardt's seven Winston Cup championships and his closest friend in the garage. It had been there when his crew secured his window net on pit road and he rolled away to take the green flag. A flashing orange dot indicates the racer experienced an ultra-quick but not insignificant G-load. F1 Bahrain Grand Prix: How to watch on TV in the USA on ESPN, Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer is a tubeframe SUV with an IndyCar engine, Revealed: Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer Earnhardt's death launched a NASCAR safety evolution that continues 20 years later. Newman himself even stopped by, stepping in behind the top-secret pull-down doors where the car was being kept, to try to make sense of how and why he was alive. He was beating himself up for talking his friend out of quitting and couldn't shake that "they're going to get someone killed" comment during the red flag. "Everything we did and said and decided was inside that garage," Nelson said. When NASCAR and Joe Gibbs Racing looked over the car in the garage, they discovered that the steering wheel was bent, dented from the impact of Stewart's full-face helmet. According to an article from 4 years ago, when asked on the whereabouts on the car Richard Childress said "I'd rather not comment on that." Most other sources say it was cut up and destroyed. Dale Earnhardt celebrates his 4th NASCAR Winston Cup Championship after the Atlanta Journal 500, NASCAR Winston Cup race, Atlanta Motor Speedway on November 18, 1990 in Hampton, Georgia. Ryan Newman talks about the few memories he has from his 2020 crash at Daytona that left him hospitalized. Sometimes he even goes full Robert Duvall in "Days of Thunder." On February 18, 2001, Dale Sr. lost his life at the 43rd running of the Great American Race following a devastating collision on the outside wall at Daytona International Speedway. "You could tell in the communication from those arriving on scene," Helton says of his view from race control. Dale Earnhardt's tragic death after a crash at the end of the 2001 Daytona 500 fueled many changes and prompted a variety of celebrations of his life. Unlike his fellow . ", Bohannon rode back to the track with Helton. Here's a look at exactly what happened leading up to, during . "It was strange enough when he said it at the time," Labonte said when he recalled the comment in 2019. The longer-term projects were steered into the Next Gen folder, as in the next-generation model of NASCAR stock car that was already being designed for 2021 (now 2022 due to the pandemic). Johns. The tool that could have saved him wasn't some new invention that needed to be discovered. The crash that killed Dale Earnhardt on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 was hardly the routine hit it initially appeared to be - he was traveling 150 mph and his angle of impact was. A note, a comment, a last conversation with a lost loved one that wasn't really an indicator of cosmic tumblers about to fall into place, but man, in retrospect, they sure feel like it. If close friends or family ask to see it, he'll show it to them, though he doesn't allow photos. He got so excited that he leapt out of his seat. On February 18, 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr. lost his life at the 43rd running of the "Great American Race" following a collision on the outside wall at Daytona International Speedway. For a fraction of a second, the nose of Earnhardt's Chevy corrected itself, pointed briefly in the right direction to resume racing. Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time Winston Cup champion, was killed instantly yesterday by injuries suffered in a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500, the sport's biggest event. February 18, 2001 is NASCAR's darkest day. The father-son team was battling it out to the finish on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. 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