Welcome To My Dale Earnhardt Page
Like most NASCAR fans, I was very upset over the death in February of the
sport's king, Dale "The Intimidator" Earnhardt. As I watched his
black Chevy Goodwrench #3 car smash into the wall of the fourth turn at
the Daytona Speedway, I thought, well, that doesn't look too bad, but look
at Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., ("Little E")! They're gonna finish
first and second! Wow, what a finish!
Only later, on my way home from the friend's house where I watched the
event, did I hear that he had died in the crash. I was stunned. How could
that have happened? Really, the smack into the wall, although at 160 miles
an hour, didn't look that bad. What I mean is, I've seen worse-looking
accidents from which drivers walked away. In fact, there was a massive accident several laps before that took out about a dozen cars. Frankly, I am surprised that Tony Stewart survived having his car get air-born and flip several times, the body and chassis shredded beyond recognition.
The next day, there were calls heard from the NASCAR fan community for
Sterling Marlin's head on a pike; that the front end of Marlin's car had
bumped into Earnhardt's rear fender, sending him into the wall and to his
death. This upset me as well, because I am a big Sterling Marlin fan.
Soon afterwards, Little E made a public statement to the effect that the
accident which had taken his father's life WAS NOT Marlin's, or anybody
else's, fault; that this was a car race, and car races are dangerous, etc.
I have seen the video tape of the accident many times since then, and this is
what I saw:
- Several cars were driving side-by-side behind Big Dale's car, which was
in 3rd place. They were running "4 wide" on the track, all of them in
excess of 180 MPH.
- Dale's car was sliding up and down the width of the track in an obvious
attempt to corral the field and keep them from overtaking Waltrip and
Little E, who were running 1st and 2nd, respectively.
- While he was corraling the field, Dale's car came in contact with at
least TWO different cars behind him, one of which certainly was
Sterling's Coors Light #40 car, which was running at the bottom of the
track, ahead of the blue #55 Square D car, (seen in the photo above).
- The cars behind Dale's were running true, (that is, they weren't
weaving around on the track like Dale's car was).
- Clearly, Dale was not driving to win the race himself. Instead, he was trying to keep the drivers behind him from overtaking Waltrip, who was driving
an Earnhardt-owned car, or from his son, Little E.
Whether that is a legitimate racing strategy is not for me to judge. But it seems to me that Dale's actions, not those of the other drivers on the track, led, sadly, to his own demise.
Like many tumultuous events in Life, we may never know, even after NASCAR issues its own report on the accident in August, what happened that day. One thing is for sure: for the fans of NASCAR and auto racing, we lost an icon, a hero, a man who was the undisputed king of his sport. So many drivers owe their careers to Dale, and so many fans' heart have been made heavier by his loss.
Below are links to some very cool NASCAR and other racing sites. The logos on this page are used without permission, but I ain't profitting from it - so sue me...!
