The
death of Dale Earnhardt,
Sr. during the
Daytona 500
on February 18, 2001, was a highly-publicized event that generated
intense interest from the media and resulted in various safety
improvements in
NASCAR auto racing.
Dale Earnhardt's last gift 5 years after the crash, That's
Racin
Earnhardt was a seven-time series champion and one of NASCAR's most
storied drivers. Earnhardt was the fourth driver to die in NASCAR
competition following
Adam Petty's death
in May 2000.
Following Earnhardt's death and the subsequent investigation of the
events leading to his death, NASCAR began an intensive focus on
safety that has seen the organization mandate the use of
head-and-neck restraints, oversee the installation of
SAFER barriers at all oval tracks, set
rigorous new inspection rules for seat-belt and seats, develop a
roof-hatch escape system, and eventually led to the development of
a next-generation race car built with extra driver safety in mind,
the
Car of Tomorrow.
Circumstances of Earnhardt's death
Rules of Competition
Dale
Earnhardt died while competing in the 2001 Daytona 500,
a NASCAR-sanctioned automobile race at Daytona
International Speedway
. NASCAR sanctions required the use of a
carburetor
restrictor plate for
races held at the track. In 2000, the year before Earnhardt died,
NASCAR instituted additional restrictions to the springs and shocks
used on the cars, causing Earnhardt to complain to the media, "[The
rules] took NASCAR Winston Cup racing and made it some of the
sorriest racing. They took racing out of the hands of the drivers
and the crews. We can't adjust and make our cars drive like we
want. They just killed the racing at Daytona. This is a joke to
have to race like this."
In response to criticism such as Earnhardt's, NASCAR developed a
new aerodynamic package for the cars competing in Winston Cup
Series races at Daytona and Talladega. In the initial running of
this aerodynamic package at Talladega, Earnhardt passed seventeen
cars within four laps to win the fall 2000 Talladega race. The 2001
Daytona 500 was the first 500 mile race run at the track with this
package, which was designed to keep cars bunched up close together
and to allow more frequent passing at high speed.
Events of the Race
Following the start of the 2001 Daytona 500, Earnhardt led several
of the opening laps, and continued to be a front-runner throughout
the race. As the race entered its final laps Earnhardt and his
familiar black #3 car were running in third, with two of his
race team's cars, the #15 NAPA
Chevrolet driven by
Michael Waltrip
and the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet run by his son
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., running first and
second in front of him. Behind Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr., Earnhardt
was blocking the attempts by
Sterling
Marlin in his #40 Coors Light Dodge to pass. With less than two
laps remaining, Fox commentator
Darrell
Waltrip noted that "Sterling has beat the front end off of that
ol' Dodge [Marlin's car] trying to get around Dale [Earnhardt
Sr.]".
As the cars entered Turn 3 on the final lap, Earnhardt still held
third and was running in the middle lane of traffic. Marlin was
behind him and running the bottom lane, while
Rusty Wallace's #2 Ford was directly behind
Earnhardt and
Ken Schrader was above
Earnhardt riding the high lane in his #36 M&M's Pontiac.
For reasons unknown, Earnhardt's car veered abruptly down the
track, and the left rear corner of the car made contact with
Marlin's front bumper. This contact caused Earnhardt's car to turn
sharply to the left. Earnhardt's car drove off the track's steep
banking, onto the flat apron. The car then turned sharply to the
right and headed back up the banking toward the concrete retaining
wall. Seconds before the car hit the wall, Schrader's car collided
with Earnhardt's.
Almost instantly, as the front of Earnhardt's car made impact with
the wall, the right-rear wheel assembly broke off the car, the
passenger-door window blew out of the car, and the hood pins
severed, causing the hood to flap open and slam against the
windshield. No other vehicles impacted Earnhardt's car after it hit
the wall and Schrader's car seemed to push Earnhardt's as it slowed
to a stop. The cars of Earnhardt and Schrader slid down the track
banking and came to a rest on the infield grass inside Turn 4.
Schrader exited his car and went to check on Earnhardt, but seconds
later was seen frantically waving for help as Earnhardt was
unresponsive.
Meanwhile, the race continued despite the accident, with Waltrip
and Earnhardt Jr. holding the first and second positions to the
finish. Wallace finished third, Marlin seventh, and Earnhardt and
Schrader were credited with finishing twelfth and thirteenth
respectively.
Details of the Crash
A subsequent investigation revealed that Earnhardt's car struck the
concrete retaining wall at a critical angle between 13 and 14
degrees, at an estimated speed of 157-160
mph. Earnhardt was killed instantly.
Following the accident, Earnhardt was cut from his car and taken
directly to
Halifax Medical Center by
ambulance (since he had no vital signs and the injuries were
obviously life-threatening, he was never taken to the infield care
center which is usually mandatory). Earnhardt was pronounced dead
at 5:16 p.m EST, reportedly surrounded by his wife Teresa
Earnhardt, his team owner/friend Richard Childress, and his son
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
About 2 hours later, at a press conference,
NASCAR President
Mike
Helton made the formal announcement to the world, saying,
"Undoubtedly this is one of the toughest announcements I've
personally had to make. After the accident in Turn 4 at the end of
the Daytona 500, we've lost Dale Earnhardt."
Injuries sustained
The official cause of Earnhardt's death in the medical examiners
autopsy report was listed as "
blunt
force injuries of the head". It noted, among other things, that
Earnhardt sustained:
Aftermath
Dale Earnhardt's death received widespread media attention. One
newspaper called the day "Black Sunday". Grieving fans congregated
at the headquarters of
Richard
Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Incorporated the night of
the accident, as well as the track where Earnhardt died. Earnhardt
was featured in the following week's
Time Magazine, and video from the race
was played on nearly every major United States televised newscast.
Earnhardt's funeral was telecast live on multiple television
networks, including
CNN and
Fox News Channel.
Earnhardt's death resulted in both a police investigation and a
NASCAR-sanctioned investigation. In a reversal of previous NASCAR
policy, nearly every detail of the investigation was made
public.
In the days following the accident,
Sterling Marlin received hate mail and death
threats from fans who blamed Marlin for Earnhardt's death.
Earnhardt's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., absolved Marlin of
responsibility and asked everyone who loved his father to stop
assigning blame for his death.
Earnhardt's #3 car was immediately retired by team owner Richard
Childress. Childress made a public pledge that the number would
never again adorn the side of a black car sponsored by
GM Goodwrench, the color scheme and sponsor
Earnhardt had driven since 1988.
Earnhardt's team was re-christened as the #29
team, with the same sponsor (GM Goodwrench), but the car was
adorned with a reversed color scheme (white body with black
numerals and a black stripe on the bottom) was used for races at
Rockingham
and Las Vegas
. For the race at Atlanta
, a new GM Goodwrench scheme was introduced, with
angled red stripes and a thin blue pinstripe, resembling the
AC Delco Chevrolets driven in the Busch Series.
From 2003 until 2006, when the Goodwrench sponsorship ended, the
#29 car was painted in black and silver, bearing greater
resemblance to the machine that Earnhardt piloted but with a more
contemporary flair. A small #3 decal is placed alongside the #29 to
honor Earnhardt and the team's legacy.
Childress'
second-year Busch Series driver Kevin
Harvick was named as Earnhardt's replacement driver, beginning
with the race following Earnhardt's death, the Dura Lube 400
held at North
Carolina Speedway
. Hats bearing the #3 logo were distributed
to everyone at the track to honor Earnhardt. The Childress team
wore blank uniforms out of respect but as Harvick's performance
improved, the regular GM Goodwrench Service Plus uniforms returned.
Dura Lube 400 pole sitter
Jeff Gordon
gave a "missing man" formation during the pace laps, a custom used
in motorsports for mourning.
Fans honored Earnhardt by holding three fingers aloft on the third
lap of every NASCAR Winston Cup race. Meanwhile, NASCAR's
television partners also went silent for the third lap, a practice
that was repeated until the 2002 race at Rockingham.
NASCAR allowed Earnhardt's Daytona points to be combined with
Harvick's points for the rest of the season for purposes of the
Winner's Circle and owner points. The team still scored a top-ten
finish for the 2001 season.
Cause of death controversy
At a news conference five days after the fatal crash, NASCAR
officials announced that the left lap belt on Earnhardt's seat belt
harness had broken. NASCAR's medical expert, Dr. Steve Bohannon,
said he thought the faulty belt had allowed Earnhardt's chin to
strike the steering wheel, causing a
basilar skull fracture, killing him.
This led to speculation that Earnhardt would have survived the
wreck had the seat belt not broken.
First responders to Earnhardt's crash maintained that the seat
belts were loose, but the lap belt was not broken or cut when the
belts were unbuckled. However, NASCAR's investigation concluded
that each of the medical workers attending Earnhardt after the
crash reported the buckle position of Earnhardt's harness was
off-center by four to eight inches, which would have been
impossible had the lap belt not broken.
A subsequent medical investigation revealed that belt failure did
not play a significant role in Earnhardt's death.
At the time of Earnhardt's death, Simpson Race Products—the company
which manufactured Earnhardt's seat belts—manufactured the seat
belts used in nearly every NASCAR competitor's machine.
Bill Simpson, the founder of Simpson Race
Products, maintained that the belt had failed because it had been
installed in an unapproved fashion in order to increase Earnhardt's
comfort, an allegation that had been supported by some who were
familiar with the situation.
The
Orlando Sentinel,
particularly Sentinel sportswriter Ed
Hinton, attempted to acquire Earnhardt's autopsy records and
photos for study, autopsy records normally being public documents
in Florida
, but
Earnhardt's widow, Teresa Earnhardt
petitioned a judge to seal the records. After a short court
battle, it was mutually agreed to appoint Dr. Barry Myers, an
expert on crash injuries at Duke University
, to independently study Earnhardt's death.
On April 10, 2001, Myers published his report rejecting NASCAR's
explanation, finding that Earnhardt's death was the result of his
inadequately restrained head and neck snapping forward, independent
of the broken seat belt (making the question of proper or improper
installation irrelevant).
Philip
Villanueva, a University of
Miami
neurosurgeon who had
previously analyzed the crash for the Sentinel before the autopsy
records were available, said he had reached the same conclusion,
but had wanted to examine the autopsy photos to be certain.
Dr. Steve
Olvey, medical director of CART for 22 years, and
Wayne State
University
crash expert John Melvin also agreed with Myers'
report. Simpson's founder,
Bill
Simpson, called the report "The best news I've heard in seven
weeks. I've been living in daily hell."
On the same day as Myers' report was made public, NASCAR announced
its own investigation, after having remained silent for six weeks
since the accident. When the official NASCAR report, which had cost
over a million dollars, was published on August 21, 2001, it
concluded that Earnhardt's death was the result of a combination of
factors. Those factors included the last-second collision with
Schrader's car, the speed and angle of impact, and the separation
of the seat belt as being contributing factors. It was also noted
that investigators could not determine whether a head and neck
restraint device would have saved Earnhardt's life, and that
airline-style black boxes would be mandated for all vehicles in
order to better understand the forces at work in a crash such as
Earnhardt's.
After NASCAR's report, Bill Simpson retired, citing the stress as
"too much." The Simpson company attorneys asked NASCAR to
unequivocally assert the following in regards to the broken lap
belt found in Earnhardt's car:
- The belts were of high quality in workmanship and there were no
design or manufacturing defects.
- The belts met the NASCAR rule book requirements.
- The belts, as installed, did not conform to manufacturer
installation requirements.
- The separation of the left lap belt was not a result of design
or manufacturing defect, but caused by improper installation.
- The belt separation was not the cause of Earnhardt's
death.
NASCAR, however, did not respond.
Safety Improvements
There were several safety improvements made in the sport of stock
car racing following Earnhardt's death.
In response to the speculation about a broken lap belt in
Earnhardt's car, many teams migrated from traditional five-point
safety harnesses to six-point safety harnesses.
At the time NASCAR's report on Earnhardt's death was published,
there were no rules requiring drivers to wear uncomfortable
head and neck restraints. NASCAR
president
Mike Helton stated that "We
are still not going to react for the sake of reacting." However,
NASCAR did wish to "encouraged their use."
By August 19, 2001 41
out of 43 drivers were wearing them at the Pepsi 400 by Meijer at Michigan
International Speedway
, just two days before NASCAR's report came
out.
Two months later, after a crash during an
ARCA race that killed
driver
Blaise Alexander, NASCAR
mandated the use of head and neck restraints. Ironically,
Earnhardt's eldest son
Kerry
Earnhardt was involved in the crash that killed Alexander, but
Kerry was not injured.
In addition to head and neck restraints, NASCAR began requiring the
use of
soft walls at race tracks in
which its top touring series compete. The soft walls feature foam
and move slightly upon impact, dissipating energy and resulting in
less forces being exerted on the driver during an impact.
Soon after Earnhardt's death, NASCAR began developing the
Car of Tomorrow, which is currently used in
competition in the
Sprint Cup
Series. The design of the Car of Tomorrow incorporates the
result of research conducted in the aftermath of Earnhardt's
death.
Autopsy photos
On
February 19, 2001, the Volusia County
Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Dale Earnhardt's body. The unusual
act of notifying NASCAR and Teresa Earnhardt was made prior to
releasing the records sought by members of the public and
media.
Three days later, Teresa Earnhardt filed a legal brief in the
Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, in and for Volusia
County, Florida
(Case No. 2001-30373-CICI Div.
32). Once the complaint was filed, the Medical Examiner
was barred from releasing the public records, including autopsy
photographs, pertaining to Dale Earnhardt, until a formal hearing
on the merits of Teresa Earnhardt's case could be heard.
On
February 28, March 13, and March 16, 2001, the Orlando Sentinel,
Michael Uribe, founder of WebsiteCity.com, and Campus
Communications, Inc., publisher of the University
of Florida
's student newspaper The Independent Florida
Alligator, filed motions to intervene into the Earnhardt
v. Volusia litigation in order to uphold their rights to
inspect and copy public records held by the Volusia County Medical
Examiner to include the photographs and videotape of Dale
Earnhardt's autopsy examination.
On June 12-13, 2001, a trial was then conducted before Judge Joseph
Will. Will eventually ruled against Uribe and CCI's original public
records requests and constitutional arguments to inspect and copy
the medical examiner files pertaining to Dale Earnhardt, to include
autopsy photographs. Judge Will's ruling set forth in motion an
extensive legal battle later fought in the
appellate courts by both Uribe and CCI
seeking to deem the denial of their public records request
unconstitutional under Florida State and Federal laws.
Then on December 1,
2003, the United States Supreme Court
declined to hear Uribe and CCI's appeal..
Thus, the Florida Legislature's March 29, 2001 law preventing
release of Dale Earnhardt's public record autopsy photographs would
remain in effect.
Although
not widely reported, in July 2001, former American Gladiator and
Huntersville, NC
resident Jonathan
Byrne claimed to have obtained copies of the autopsy
photographs and records. When he attempted to sell them to
tabloid newspapers, Byrne was arrested for possession of stolen
property. The investigation quickly determined that the documents
were forged and the photographs were from a different, but
unidentified autopsy. Byrne eventually pled guilty to minor
misdemeanor charges and served no jail time.
The Florida Legislature's March 29, 2001 law, also known as the
Earnhardt Family Protection Act, was sponsored by Senator
Jim King (R-Jacksonville) and changed
Florida's previously long standing and historically
open public records laws
from that day onward. The Earnhardt law deemed Florida's medical
examination autopsy photographs, video and audio recordings exempt
from public inspection without the expressed permission from
applicable
next of kin.
See also
References
External links