Racing world mourns loss

By Brian Hilderbrand

Monday, Feb. 19, 2001 | 11:29 a.m.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Small groups of somber fans filed past a makeshift memorial in front of Daytona USA this morning, leaving flowers, cards, notes and other memorabilia commemorating the career of Dale Earnhardt, the legendary racer and seven-time Winston Cup champion who was killed on the last lap of Sunday's Daytona 500.

"The most exciting thing in my life has turned into one of the worst," said a teary-eyed Kathy Beistel of Vallejo, Calif., one of hundreds of fans who began filing past the NASCAR attraction early today to pay homage to one of its greatest stars.

Flags outside the Daytona USA and the speedway itself were lowered to half staff. Hotels and other businesses in the vicinity of the track put up condolences on their marquees as the NASCAR community struggled to comprehend the tragic loss.

Earnhardt arguably was more responsible than any other driver for NASCAR Winston Cup racing's meteoric success over the past two decades.

He was 49.

A seven-time series champion, Earnhardt lost control of his black Chevrolet Monte Carlo and collided with driver Ken Schrader in Turn 4 of the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Earnhardt's car slammed head-first into the wall at approximately 180 mph. He was running in third place at the time of the accident.

"My speculation as an emergency physician would be (that Earnhardt died of) head injuries, particularly to the base of the skull," said Dr. Steve Bohannon, Daytona International Speedway's director of emergency medical services.

"He was unconscious (and) unresponsive ... he was not breathing and had no palpable pulse from the time of the first paramedics' arrival at the scene."

Earnhardt had to be cut out of the car and was rushed to nearby Halifax Medical Center, which is located across the street from the speedway. Bohannon said Earnhardt was attended to by a team of trauma specialists at the hospital but showed no signs of life and was pronounced dead at 5:16 p.m. EST.

Earnhardt's wife, Teresa, and son, Dale Jr., were at his side in the trauma center. Dale Jr., 26, also is a Winston Cup driver and finished second in Sunday's race.

Ironically, Michael Waltrip won the Daytona 500, considered the Super Bowl of stock-car racing, in a car owned by Earnhardt.

Television replays showed the cars of Sterling Marlin and Earnhardt running close together when Earhardt's car suddenly veered left and then spun right toward the concrete wall, into Schrader's path. "I don't know for sure what happened," Schrader said. "I guess someone got into Dale because Dale got into me and then we went up (the banking, into the wall). We hit pretty hard, and Dale hit harder. I don't know what happened. All of a sudden we were all crashing."

Most of the drivers already had left the track when it was learned that Earnhardt had died in the crash.

"Today NASCAR lost its greatest driver in the history of the sport," Bill France Jr., chairman of the board of NASCAR, said in a prepared statement. "I lost a dear friend."

Earnhardt, known as the Intimidator for his aggressive driving style, was NASCAR's winningest active driver with 76 victories in a career that began full time in 1979. As a rookie, he won seven races and NASCAR's Rookie of the Year award. A year later he won his first of seven Winston Cup championships, tying him with the legendary Richard Petty.

Jeff Motley, director of public relations for Las Vegas Motor Speedway, called Earnhardt's death a "devastating loss" for NASCAR, which lost three drivers to similar injuries last year.

"Whether you loved him or hated him, he was absolutely the best thing that happened to the sport over the last 20 years," said Motley, who worked for NASCAR in 1998. "He was to NASCAR what the New York Yankees are to baseball ... it was either a love-him or hate-him type of thing.

"The other thing about Earnhardt that a lot of people don't realize was Dale Earnhardt as the businessman ... was the person who really made NASCAR apparel what it is today -- he definitely learned the licensing game before anybody else did."

The Winston Cup Series returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 4 for the fourth annual UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. Motley said he and LVMS General Manager Chris Powell would meet today to decide how the speedway would memorialize Earnhardt during next month's race weekend.

Ned Jarrett, one of the early pioneers of NASCAR who won two series championships as a driver and has been a longtime racing analyst on radio and television, called Earnhardt the greatest driver in the history of the sport.

"He had such tremendous talent, and he knew how to use the talent that God gave him," Jarrett said. "In my opinion, he was the best race driver there has ever been.

"If there was ever a natural-born race driver, he was it. Most people have to work at becoming a good race driver. Certainly, he has taken the talents that God has given him and worked hard to perfect them, but I don't think it was as hard for him ... because he was just simply a natural."

Earnhardt's death is sure to rekindle debates over safety measures in NASCAR, which long had been considered one of the safest forms of motor sports because of the sturdy steel roll cages that surround the drivers.

Last year alone, however, NASCAR drivers Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin Jr. and Tony Roper died of broken necks in separate accidents in which they hit concrete retaining walls head-on.

There has been a push by some drivers for NASCAR to adopt use of the HANS head-and-neck restraint device that is mandatory this year in all Formula One events and Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) oval races.

The yolk-and-collar mechanism is tethered to a driver's helmet and allows the head and neck to move as one entity rather than the head moving violently from front to back or side to side in a crash.

Only five of the 43 drivers who started Sunday's Daytona 500 opted to wear the HANS device. Earnhardt was not one of those who wore the device and was one of the few Winston Cup drivers who did not wear a full-face crash helmet.

Bohannon said he did not believe either safety measure would have saved Earnhardt's life in Sunday's accident.

"I know a full-face helmet would not have made any difference whatsoever; he had no evidence of facial injury," Bohannon said, "and I don't know if the HANS device would have helped or not. I suspect not."

In addition to his wife and son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Earnhardt is survived by children Kerry, Kelly and Taylor.

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