Winning and losing—maybe more aptly put, not winning—is the basis of each NASCAR event.
And ten years ago at Daytona NASCAR suffered its biggest lost ever.
Seconds after rooting his brother Michael, the 2001 Daytona 500 champion, across the line, FOX commentator Darrell Waltrip looked down toward turn four where the mangled cars of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Ken Schrader lay and prophetically asked the question that still rings in the minds of those who were watching on the February afternoon: “I just hope Dale’s alright… I just hope Dale’s alright. He’s alright isn’t he?”
NASCAR president Mike Helton held a press conference later in the evening to announce the sad death of the sports’ biggest icon. “This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements I’ve personally ever had to make,” he said. “But after the accident in turn four at the end of the Daytona 500, we’ve lost Dale Earnhardt.”
Earnhardt’s death was the lead story on SportsCenter that evening. NASCAR, a sport that was gaining popularity, but still hadn’t hit the mainstream, was thrust into the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Ten years later, the NASCAR Nation still mourns the death of the man known as “The Intimidator.” No one, perhaps, took the death harder than the kid who finished second in that 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Sr.’s son, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In May of 2008, ESPN’s Marty Smith wrote a fantastic article about Dale Jr., and how the son of one of NASCAR’s most legendary drivers coped with his father’s death at Daytona. (Read Smith’s article here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3382132)
Earnhardt Jr. (pictured here with Mark Martin) had a tough time getting over his father's 2001 death (Yahoo! images-2008)
“If you go back to 2002, 2003, it was still rotten on my mind,” he told Smith. “It was still bothering me and hard to explain. I didn’t talk about it because it wasn’t something I wanted to preach—‘Oh, I lost my daddy, woe is me, and I gotta go through life without him.’ I didn't want that message.”
On Thursday, sitting in front of throngs of media members covering this week’s “Preseason Thunder” testing at Daytona, Earnhardt Jr. once again got asked if he thinks about his father. His answer: all the time.
“You know, you think about your parents all the time,” he said. “I think about him and my mother all the time, especially getting back to racing. I guess you think about them just as much in the off-season, too.”
As sad and heartrending as Earnhardt Sr.’s death was, it brought about changes in the sport. NASCAR is by no means the safest sport in the world, but the head and neck devices that have been mandated, along with all the advancements in seat, helmet and seat belt technology have made NASCAR a lot safer than it was back in 2001.
Dale Jr. agrees that the sport has done fine without his father. “Well, I think the sport has gone on just fine, been very successful, more successful than I think any of us ever imagined,” he said. “There’s been a lot of good changes…There were a lot of changes related to him, unrelated to him. And the same thing after his death.”
Earhardt Jr.'s Nationwide Series team JR Motorsports has won nine races since 2007, including this 2008 win at Las Vegas with Mark Martin (Yahoo! images-2008)
It’s a story that will be told over and over and over this year as we approach the tenth anniversary of the untimely death of the man everyone called “The Intimidator.” Although I wasn’t a fan of Earnhardt Sr., I definitely felt a sense of loss on the day he died. Every NASCAR fan felt the same way.
Dale Jr., left this message yesterday in his short time with the media, and I think it’s a great message. “I think as I was growing up, you tried to get away and do your own thing as have fun as a kid but at the same time you wanted to make your parents proud, and you sort of found your direction by listening to them inadvertently, whether you wanted to or not,” he said. “They sort of helped you find whatever it is you wanted to achieve in life.”
Earnhardt Jr. now races for arguably the most dominant team in NASCAR-Hendrick Motorsports. NASCAR's most popular driver looks to get a jump start in 2011 with new crew chief Steve Letarte (2010 image from Getty Images and Yahoo! Sports)
“My dad was there to guide me in a lot of good directions that helped me out a lot. I think that I tried to have some of the same good qualities that he had. The qualities that I enjoyed about him, I tried to emulate those as best I could and keep those qualities, as well, because I felt like it made him a good person.”
Love him or hate him, Dale Earnhardt Sr. will be missed. He probably wouldn’t still be racing, but if he were, that black No. 3 would be as feared as ever.
I remember the 2001 Daytona 500 for the final lap. I’m sure many NASCAR fans do too.
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That’s today’s Friday flashback. I’ll try to recap some of the testing tomorrow, and remember, there are only 30 days until the Daytona 500.
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