Ten years. That's how long it has been since NASCAR lost a legend on the final turn of the final lap of the sport's premier event, the Daytona 500. Looking back, at times it seems like yesterday; other times it seems like a lifetime ago…
NASCAR is like the FAA–they are accused of changing the rules "in the name of safety" only after people get killed (critics of the FAA call it "Tombstone Legislation"). How many NASCAR drivers had died on the track? There was "Little Joe" Weatherly, killed at Riverside when his head struck the retaining wall. There was Bobby Myers (father of long-time Earnhardt gas man Danny "Chocolate" Myers"), who died at Darlington when his car flipped. Billy Wade got killed during a tire test, when his car kit the wall head-on and he slid beneath the lap belts, crushing major organs. Then there is probably the most well known, Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, who died as a result of burns suffered when his car backed into the wall, ruptured the fuel tank, and burst into flame at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Safety innovations sprung from each of these wrecks–window nets, 5-point harnesses, and rupture resistant fuel cells.
In the 12 months prior to Dale Earnhardt's fatal accident at Daytona, three other Winston Cup drivers had died: Adam Petty, son of Kyle, grandson of Richard (The King), and great-grandson of Lee had died in an accident at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, after his accelerator reportedly stuck wide open. Kenny Irwin, Jr, another up-and-coming driver who came from the ranks of the dirt track circuits, died at the same speedway mere weeks after Adam died–and the same cause was suspected. Later that year, Tony Roper died at a Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The common denominator in the mechanics of their deaths was a phenomenon known as basal skull fracture.
But those guys were all rookies. They must have made a mistake that led to their accidents–Roper was killed when he swerved to try and evade another truck. Petty and Irwin had stuck throttles. So, the reasoning went, we have a case of a Rookie driver making a Rookie mistake and two cases of mechanical failure. Put a kill switch on the car, throw a restrictor plate on the engines when racing at New Hampshire, and all will be well, NASCAR said.
Dale Earnhardt's accident didn't look bad–in fact, earlier that same day the proverbial "Big One" occurred and it appeared that someone was certainly killed when Robby Gordon and Ward Burton got into each other. The memorable thing about that was watching Tony Stewart's #20 Home Depot Pontiac flip down the backstretch, winding up on his teammate Bobby Labonte's hood. No, Dale had walked away from far worse wrecks. There was the time he wound up with the car on it's roof, then getting T-Boned. There was the wreck he had with Ernie Irvan (ironically, a survivor of a basal skull fracture suffered at Michigan International Speedway in 1994), where he hit the wall nearly head-on. No, this was a minor fender bender, and surely Dale would hop out of the car, clear the cobwebs, and start goofing around with Kenny Schrader, whose car had also been caught up in the wreck.
Not this time. Kenny climbed out of his car. He walked over the the black #3 Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS. He dropped the window net. He recoiled away from the car as if there were snakes inside, and started to gesture for the rescue crew to hurry up. As they worked, the TV coverage was divided between Victory Lane, where Michael Waltrip, previously 0-for-462, had won the race–his first race driving for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.
Meanwhile, back at Turn 4, the ambulance bypassed the stop at the Infield Car Center and worked its way to Halifax Medical Center. A blue tarp–later to be synonymous with FEMA-supplied temporary roofs–was draped over the black #3. The tow truck winched the car onto the rollback and slowly headed to the garage area.
In Victory Lane, the media frenzy was still going on–"Mike, what's it like to finally win?" The party wouldn't last. On a day where the underdog finally won, his celebration would be cut short.
Later investigation would point out many things–perhaps the seat harness wasn't installed correctly. No, it was fine. But wait, the lap belt was cut. No, the rescue crew did that. Maybe not. He hit the steering wheel. He hit the windshield. The final verdict? Basal Skull Fracture had killed Dale Earnhardt.
The fallout was immediate and far-reaching. Fellow driver Sterling Marlin was getting death threats, since it was his car that tapped the back bumper of the Goodwrench machine, sending the black car towards the wall. It wasn't until Earnhardt's son Dale Jr. and Michael Waltrip publicly made statements to the fact that Sterling wasn't to blame that the threats stopped. Bill Simpson, the man behind Simpson Performance Products, resigned when NASCAR alleged that the seatbelt had failed and he too began receiving death threats. NASCAR mandated the use of full face helmets and one of two head restraint systems–the HANS Device or the Hutchens Device–that would restrain the driver's head from snapping forward violently in the event of a crash (eventually, the series would settle on the HANS Device). Another safety feature was to be retrofitted to all NASCAR-approved tracks–the SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reduction) Barrier, a foam and steel energy-absorbing layer was installed on the corners of the tracks.
Some of these mandates came a little late. Later that year, Steve Park (another of Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated's drivers) was competing at Darlington in a Busch Series race when the steering wheel came off during a caution period. The car veered to the left, and another car T-Boned Park. The same scene slowly played out–the extended caution, the rescue workers removing the car's roof, the blue tarp…it was somewhat surreal. Park suffered a severe closed head injury and to many experts has never recovered from those injuries. He was not wearing either a HANS or Hutchens device.
These days, when you see a driver hit the wall–hard–you can be certain that Dale Earnhardt saved their life. Ask Elliot Sadler. Or Carl Edwards. Or any number of drivers who would not be here were it not for the fact that NASCAR finally mandated new safety devices only after their icon had been killed. Despite the fact that these innovations were available long before the accident that claimed Earnhardt (Smokey Yunick had come up with an early version of so-called "soft walls" in the 1970's, and F1, the NHRA, and the Indy Racing League had encouraged use of the HANS Device since the mid-1990's), it took four dead drivers to finally convince the powers-that-be that it was time for NASCAR to get serious about driver safety–again.
Remember that when you watch this weekend's coverage of "The Great American Race". Let us all hope it is a safe race.
Thanks for reading. Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.