Remembering Dale Earnhardt

What A Difference An Hour Makes

By Geof Morris
Chief Editor, TOTK.com Sports
www.totk.com

Around 4:00 p.m. Central time, the 2001 running of the Daytona 500 completed. I rushed to cobble together a column for TOTK Today, mainly because I knew I'd be on air with my brother, Doug, discussing the race on his radio program in South Mississippi.
About 4:45 p.m., I got it finished, a nice piece [or so I thought] on NASCAR being a family tradition. [http://www.TOTKToday.com/1col-20010218.html if you want to read
it.]

I got on Doug's show a little after 5:00. We kibbitzed about the race, and Doug asked me a question, "So, what about Earnhardt?" I responded, "Yeah, he whacked the wall pretty hard, but the first reports I heard seem to lead that they're just going to
check him for a concussion. Sounds pretty routine." We went on, neither of us really all that concerned.

About an hour later, Dale Earnhardt was pronounced dead.

I can hardly begin to express what DE's loss means to me or to NASCAR. The biggest reason for this has to be that it really doesn't seem to make sense to me yet. Sure, I watched Dale smack into the wall--hard. Sure, I watched the crash crew swarm his
car. But this is NASCAR Winston Cup, where the cars are pretty safe. And this is The Intimidator! Consider all the other terrifying wrecks he's lived through.

I've talked about this with several folks tonight. In fact, as I was typing this, I got a call from Doug. In talking about it, we've decided that this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back on pushing safety equipment on the drivers. Earnhardt drove without a face mask, and it's likely that the fact that his helmet cavity wasn't complete could have contributed to his injuries.

Gary Gambino, no fan of NASCAR, just emailed: "I tried to compare The Intimidator's passing to someone in one of the major team sports. You know the name I seized upon? Cal Ripken Jr. If Cal had died during a game [presumably a playoff or World Series
game, the equivalent of Daytona], I would be deeply affected." Perhaps this is going too far--but only in terms of scope.

Anytime anyone dies in NASCAR--whether it's today's incident, Davey Allison's helicopter crash, or one of the many practice crashes that have claimed lies--it's big. Real big. Daytona is a big stage, sure, but that's only because of the history and the
timing.

The greatest ironies of all to me are twin:

o When pressed for a pick for the Winston Cup Champion on air last weekend, I went with #3. Why? Like I told Doug, "You can't pick it this early in the year, and when it comes down to it, Dale's still on top." You don't know, do you?

o Earnhardt has long been king of restrictor plate racing and bumping and grinding on the track. Yet when Earnhardt crashed, he wasn't trying to get to the front like he always does--no, he was trying to screen cars for his son, Dale Jr., and one of his employees, Michael Waltrip.

For once, I'll let Gambz have the last word: "We may disagree on NASCAR's place as a legitimate sport, but one thing is clear: the racing world lost a legend today."

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