No one knew that February day would be the last one of Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s life. Most days, Dr. John Patalak, NASCAR's senior director of safety engineering, can be found with his staff in the R&D Center at the controls of superpowered hydraulic pulls and presses, stretching the limits of nylon window nets and conducting maddeningly slow compression tests of piping and foam, to see how they will react to the in-race pressures that are produced in fractions of seconds. Ryan Newman looks back at his crash at Daytona (3:33), How the Dale Earnhardt tragedy made NASCAR safer -- and saved Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch still not cleared from July concussion, Nemechek wins final NASCAR race at Fontana, Ky. Busch takes Fontana for 1st win with RCR, Rain pushes Xfinity Series at Fontana to Sunday, Rain washes out NASCAR qualifying at Fontana, Stenhouse wins longest Daytona 500 in history, Hill goes last to 1st to win Xfinity season opener, Stenhouse's Daytona win shows the 500 is 'crazier' than ever, Hamlin, Toyota drivers skip final Daytona practice, Johnson's team takeover irks NASCAR icon Petty, Beers, mullets and the Daytona 500: Inside Travis Pastrana's and Jimmie Johnson's friendship, J. Johnson tops Daytona 500 practice in return, Daytona 500 cheat sheet: Everything you need to know, IndyCar's Daly makes Daytona 500 with TMT, Trackhouse Racing signs Chastain to extension, Bowman secures Daytona pole; Johnson qualifies, Suarez signs 2nd Trackhouse Racing extension, Bowman signs 3-year extension with Hendrick, Dale vs. Dale: A Daytona 500 the Jarretts, NASCAR won't forget, Daytona 500 boasts eighth consecutive sellout, Ky. Busch apologizes for gun violations in Mexico, NASCAR's 2023 season will be a year of change, Daly, Mayweather team up for Daytona 500 run, Truex Jr. wins in NASCAR's return to LA Coliseum, "E:60 Presents -- Intimidator: The Lasting Legacy of Dale Earnhardt. It was the first race of a new six-year billion-dollar broadcast deal and Fox Sports had wallpapered the nation in promotion, from ads during NFL playoff games to getting Terry Bradshaw named grand marshal of the event, complete with a Daytona 500 Eve ridealong with Earnhardt, who jerked the wheel like he was headed into the wall just to scare the four-time Super Bowl champ. In Roubaix there are 96.990 folks, considering 2017 last census. There's nothing Ken Schrader can do to erase the image he has of seeing Dale Earnhardt dead in his car. He believed the belt had likely broken via the force of the collision with the wall, so Earnhardt's fatal skull fracture had already happened. ONE BY ONE, cars started leaving the hospital to return to Daytona International Speedway. From the archive: Dale Earnhardt Sr looks ahead to 2001 Feb. 18, 2021 - The death of Dale Earnhardt Sr at the 2001 Daytona 500 shocked NASCAR to the core. Motorsports can always be safer, but they will never be safe. As his and Schraders cars spun down the track in unison, Earnhardts right-rear wheel parted company an indicator of the violence that had shaken through the vehicle. In the Halifax Medical trauma room, Bohannon and his coworkers tried to inflate Earnhardt's collapsed lungs, performed a chest X-ray and continued pumping his body with blood. To this day, all Schrader will say of what he saw is, "I just knew that it wasn't good. We have to fix it.' How much does an F1 car weigh in 2023 and what's included in the limit? Dale Earnhardt's death jolted the system. A revamped superspeedway rules package, the same one Earnhardt used to earn his already legendary 18th-to-first dash at Talladega, promised to provide an entertaining event. The photographs start flowing in from NASCAR officials at the racetrack, along with their on-the-spot instant analysis of what happened. Before 1998, he had four runner-up . ': Revisiting the Dale Earnhardt crash at the Daytona 500, Kurt Busch still not cleared from July concussion, Nemechek wins final NASCAR race at Fontana, Ky. Busch takes Fontana for 1st win with RCR, Rain pushes Xfinity Series at Fontana to Sunday, Rain washes out NASCAR qualifying at Fontana, Stenhouse wins longest Daytona 500 in history, Hill goes last to 1st to win Xfinity season opener, Stenhouse's Daytona win shows the 500 is 'crazier' than ever, Hamlin, Toyota drivers skip final Daytona practice, Johnson's team takeover irks NASCAR icon Petty, Beers, mullets and the Daytona 500: Inside Travis Pastrana's and Jimmie Johnson's friendship, J. Johnson tops Daytona 500 practice in return, Daytona 500 cheat sheet: Everything you need to know, IndyCar's Daly makes Daytona 500 with TMT, Trackhouse Racing signs Chastain to extension, Bowman secures Daytona pole; Johnson qualifies, Suarez signs 2nd Trackhouse Racing extension, Bowman signs 3-year extension with Hendrick, Dale vs. Dale: A Daytona 500 the Jarretts, NASCAR won't forget, Daytona 500 boasts eighth consecutive sellout, Ky. Busch apologizes for gun violations in Mexico, NASCAR's 2023 season will be a year of change, Daly, Mayweather team up for Daytona 500 run, Truex Jr. wins in NASCAR's return to LA Coliseum. But the people who lived that day in the arena with the man in his final hours still find themselves wrestling with the reality that Dale Earnhardt is gone. Earnhardt died in a crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500. 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. Nowadays, the cars are designed to prevent things like blunt trauma to the head. As soon as Earnhardt Jr. saw Schrader's eyes, he knew he would need to go offsite to Halifax Medical to see his father. To stop suddenly at a high rate of speed is often disastrous and sometimes deadly. When Newman's car arrived (along with his slightly splintered HANS and his extremely cracked helmet), issues that were discovered were separated into short- and long-term projects. 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. Unlike his fellow . Her good luck kiss to her husband, captured on live TV, looked longer and more impassioned than normal. This is the final installment 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. "When Adam died and Kenny [Irwin] died and [Tony] Roper died, all in 2000, the needle moved just a little," he says. The lasting NASCAR legacy after Dale Earnhardts death, From the archive: Dale Earnhardts final Autosport interview, F1 Bahrain Grand Prix: How to watch on TV in the USA on ESPN, How to watch: Bahrain GP on U.S. TV 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. Now, NASCAR continues to flourish as it drives on into a bright future. Athough one rumor claims it sits at the bottom on Lake Lloyd, I'm not sure it's a reliable source. Dale was in serious trouble." The impact registered around 60 G's, so much force that it pushed the entire right front corner of the car from an aerodynamic curve into a flat surface that fit the wall as perfectly as a jigsaw puzzle piece. THE RACE ITSELF was a good one, with 49 lead changes swapped among 14 different race leaders. With the next superspeedway race scheduled for Talladega Speedway in less than two months, the R&D team looked for any quick-fix issues that might have needed to be installed by race teams as they were building their cars for Daytona's sister racetrack. I thought I had this path and this direction, with him, to do what we were going to do. Stream now on demand. 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. People stopped reacting and got proactive.". But to the cameras and Patalak's trained eye, the blip was a solid test of the driver's HANS, seat and headrests. It had been nearly two hours and they were about to step into the media center to address the world. "I walked out after that. I hollered at Dale a couple of times [on the radio] and he didnt answer back which was a little unusual., Schrader, who was the first person to attend the crash scene, said that moment will always stay with me and has famously refused to divulge any details of what he saw inside Earnhardts car. Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer is a tubeframe SUV with an IndyCar engine, How Porsche's Daytona hiccups evoked the premiere of its Group C king, How Porsche's Daytona hiccups evoked the premiere of its Group C king Sometimes, it's through a formal investigation of a historic event, like a terrorist attack or space shuttle explosion. 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. So to me, it's personal. The veteran racer drove as if he were invincible, and time and time again, it seemed that way. France froze out Melvin after he publicly questioned NASCAR's decision to display a frayed and broken seat belt found in the No. But Stewart climbed out of what was left of his car, shaken but OK. Fans hold up three fingers on the 3rd lap to remember Dale Earnhardt ten years after he died, Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images, Earnhardts former rival Darrell Waltrip was calling the race for Fox Sports, which was broadcasting the Daytona 500 for the first time. "We've made more progress in 18 or 19 years than they made in the first 50 years of the sport, so you have to be proud of that, but at the same time I was fascinated by the reaction to Ryan's accident," Petty says. But how, especially without any head and neck restraints? For a fraction of a second, the nose of Earnhardt's Chevy corrected itself, pointed briefly in the right direction to resume racing. In the beginning, it had more of a competition-based mission, and that's still a huge part of what is done here. (3:04). Earnhardt was playing rear gunner to his Dale Earnhardt, Inc. team cars as they raced around the final lap of the race, to block any late runs from the chasing pack. In 2000, he was hired by the racetrack as its chief emergency doctor. Earnhardt's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was participating in the same race that his father died. Newman said yes. He shunned any head and neck safety restraint, unlike some of the drivers in the field that day. The rest of my life. It had been there all along. Driving a race car, whether it is NASCAR, Formula One, or another type, is far more than just going around in an oval. "Yeah, I have two bars named after me now, Newman Bars 1 and 2; that's good company with the guys who have the other bars in there with me, and they don't have two!" While race teams pressed on through grief, the sanctioning body trudged through a PR quagmire, even as post-Earnhardt television ratings rose. Even after all these years, we still feel the impact of NASCAR's most tragic wreck. That's what happened to racer Michael Waltrip at the 2001 Daytona 500. The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car, How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style, How Cindric won the 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. One circuit later, he allowed Michael Waltrip to slide by, taking Earnhardt Jr. with him. He doesn't remember anything about the crash, or even about that day except for having lunch with his parents before going to the track. The tool that could have saved him wasn't some new invention that needed to be discovered. He was 49. Normally, his march to his waiting ride was a gotta-get-there mission. By summer, the crumpled No. If close friends or family ask to see it, he'll show it to them, though he doesn't allow photos. Tony Stewart's orange No. 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. Earnhardts left-side lap belt had separated in the impact, allowing his body to twist forward and to the right inside the car. As they played out, Waltrip added: Those kind of licks are the worst kind; theyre sudden. Like, dang, I was just another racer. Sometimes he even goes full Robert Duvall in "Days of Thunder." "If today's safety regulations and standards were in place, Blaise Alexander would still be here as well. On February 18, 2001, the beloved driver took his last lap on that track. The NASCAR chairman asked him the same question about whether the HANS device would have saved Earnhardt. The current 60,000-square-foot building opened its doors in 2003. A second generation of "blue box" incident data recorders continues to create a vast library of information, detecting early patterns before they become deadly trends. Her husband tried to talk her into finding a different verse, something less ominous. "I'm a lucky man. NASCAR 2023 at Las Vegas schedule, entry list, and how to watch, The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team, Marques on taking on NASCAR 20 machine took a hard right-hand turn and drilled the concrete wall with a perfectly centered shot from the nose of his Pontiac. We're going to look at this one day and go, 'Dang, can you believe they drove those cars? France Jr. was happy. The restart came on Lap 180, with 20 to go. Steve O'Donnell, now NASCAR's chief racing development officer, made the Newman announcement. On Friday, he produced a genuine Intimidator moment when he was spun out by Indy 500 champ Eddie Cheever in an IROC event, sliding his Pontiac through the grass, whipping it back up onto the banking, finishing seventh, then stalking a terrified Cheever on pit road after the race. When Earnhardt dropped low in front of Marlin, he hadn't completely cleared the nose of the No. NASCAR fought with media outlets and other racing series, and even feuded with safety experts. He was trying to block the path of other drivers to ensure that Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. would finish first and second. "I have to thank God and the HANS device.". Crew chief Tony Eury Sr. was also his uncle, handpicked by Earnhardt Sr. to lead his son's career. ", With the field parked under a red flag so crews could clean up the mess, Earnhardt chatted with Childress on the radio. "And now I'm thinking, 'I wonder what's gonna happen with all this stuff?' He made eye contact with Schrader, who was behind a curtain being examined. Dale Earnhardt remains one of the most popular names in NASCAR history. Q+A with Canapino, touring car ace turned IndyCar rookie, Power cites teammates and Palou as strongest threats in 2023, Power cites teammates and Palou as strongest threats in 2023 "When I think about Dad, when I think about his legacy, I never think about, man, he would be proud of the safety that he drove into the sport," Earnhardt Jr. says. There are sections of walls that now use energy-absorbing SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers that can absorb the energy from a crash, though there is still a push to make them cover more, according to SBNation. He diced it up all day with old Daytona 500 rival Sterling Marlin, and two cars he owned, driven by Michael Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. "A great day was unfolding," then-NASCAR president Mike Helton remembers thinking from race control, the press box booth where NASCAR executives and officials monitor and officiate the race below. In the garage, just a few paces from where Helton was speaking, Earnhardt Jr. had returned to the garage to see his team. The guys that first staggered door bars and first put foam inside of a helmet instead of leather. Instead, its remembered as a day of tragedy. You talk about all the things that have happened in the last hundred years of racing and safety "Those people collectively saved my life.". Johns Hopkins Medicine describes this injury as the most serious type of skull fracture, and involves a break in the bone at the base of the skull. 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. According to Legacy, his fellow racers dubbed him "The Intimidator." 45 and Kyle Petty's HANS device was sitting in the cockpit waiting for him, one of only five drivers in the 43-car field to wear one that day. He got to race in these newer cars and tracks before semi-retiring in 2017. Every now and then, he walks out to take a look at his 2020 Daytona 500 ride. After a 462-race losing streak, Waltrip was offered a ride in a NAPA-sponsored Chevrolet for the '01 race at Daytona by his dear friend, Dale Earnhardt Sr., whose racing team entered three cars in that race for Waltrip, Earnhardt, and Earnhardt's son, Dale Jr. Waltrip . That sticks with you., Earnhardts son, Dale Jr, recalled what happened in hospital: I walked right into Dads room. 0:43. This isn't the finish line of safety. 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. Photo by: F. Peirce Williams / Motorsport Images. It was Teresa Earnhardt. Everybody was all-in on, 'How do we fix this? How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022, Why Bubba Wallaces Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR, Why Wallaces win is huge for NASCAR But Newman sees that car all the time. During his career, he won seven NASCAR . Some speculated that the belt had broken, which but Tommy Propst, who took part in the futile effort to save the racing legend, was adamant that the seat belt was intact, via the LA Times. But he has pored over the car so many times and watched the video even more. "He came up and was like, 'Hey, you can do this. Now you are expected to do it.". And Tony never really stopped, did he? If his phone starts buzzing during a race, he knows there's been a crash that needs his attention. AFTER FIVE DECADES of slow-moving, reactionary safety efforts, NASCAR now doles out safety-based changes and mandates at a relatively superspeedway-like pace. Dale Earnhardt signs an autograph after Daytona 500 qualifying on Feb. 10, 2001 (Kelly Jordan/News-Journal) Don Hawk (president Dale Earnhardt Inc. 1993-2001): Saturday night (the night before the race) he's getting in his yellow Corvette in the driver/owner lot of Daytona International Speedway. In NASCAR history would finish first and second some of the Daytona 500 or family ask to see it he... Trudged through a PR quagmire, even as post-Earnhardt television ratings rose her husband, captured on TV... Out of what happened to racer Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Sr. to lead his son 's career by. He allowed Michael Waltrip at the 2001 Daytona 500 huge part of what to! 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