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Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway

Over the next two weeks, FanHouse will be covering the top sports stories of the decade. In our first installment, Holly Cain looks back at the 2001 Daytona 500 and the impact that losing Dale Earnhardt had on NASCAR.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Initially it looked like a routine last lap crash in the Daytona 500. Nothing spectacular. Dale Earnhardt had a resume full of last-lap disappointments in this great race.

So on Sunday, February 18, 2001, most of us sitting in the press box high above Daytona International Speedway fully expected the indomitable, rascally Earnhardt to once again climb out of his wrecked race car, wave to the crowd, and argue with the track workers about an ambulance ride to the care center, insisting instead on heading directly to victory circle to congratulate his longtime friend Michael Waltrip for scoring the first win of his career and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a chip-off-the-ol-block, runner-up effort.

Earnhardt's inevitable anger that he crashed would be supplanted by pride for his team, we figured.

Earnhardt's fatal crash into the Turn 4 wall late that afternoon proved to be anything but routine and, in fact, changed absolutely everything routine about the sport.

The 2001 Daytona 500 is FanHouse's pick as Motorsports Story and Race of the Decade.

 

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Click Here To Find Cool Nascar Items!

Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway

Over the next two weeks, FanHouse will be covering the top sports stories of the decade. In this installment, Holly Cain gives a first-person take on the moments surrounding Dale Earnhardt's untimely death at the 2001 Daytona 500.

I vividly remember the sickening feeling when I first realized that Dale Earnhardt might be seriously injured.

Using binoculars from a seat in the Daytona International Speedway press box -- seven stories above the famous track's finish line -- I watched driver Ken Schrader climb frantically from his car and run a few feet over to Earnhardt's Chevy. It was the final lap of the Daytona 500 and the cars had collided and hit the Turn 4 wall before coming to rest on the infield grass.

Schrader's urgent gestures to the safety crew and then his body language -- turning away from the wreckage -- was unusual for the normally controlled veteran.

Once the rescue workers arrived at Earnhardt's famous black No. 3 and assessed the situation, it felt everyone was moving too slowly. The ambulance -- headed to the hospital just across the street -- left the scene -- and wasn't rushed. The wrecker was in no hurry.

Then, the telltale sign: track workers unrolled a large tarp. After a decade of covering the sport, I knew the tarp was used to cover and cloak race cars in fatal accidents.

I will never forget watching a then 26-year old Dale Earnhardt Jr. running down pit lane towards his dad's car a good half-mile away.

 

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