Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Dale Earnhardt Sr Fans

Sorry, I got that wrong. Schrader was tangled up with him and got out of his car. Sterling Marlin was still pretty upset though. Especially when some people started blaming him. Thanks for those videos.

Might have been paying too much attention to his cars running 1 and 2 and not enough on himself. Sad day for auto racing.

I was one of his many fans. Actually I was a fan early in his career before he started winning so much. I just loved to watch him make some of the moves he did. The pass in the grass, how many could have gotten by with that? And.... wild Bill put him there after trying to wreck him twice just before that.
His last race? He was screwing around, plain & simple. He messed with the bull.

Ok, enough of the past. Thanks for the heads up on the documentary.

Dale was already dead when schrader got to his car after the wreck. The open face helmet he wore was what killed him. His head hit the steering wheel and drove his into his brain.i watched him race many times . Met him twice. I think racing would be more like it used to be if he would have lived. Still dont think we would have ever seen toyota in nascar if he hadn’t been killed. His fans alone kept the money in the sport.

Not quite.
Dale refused to wear a HANS device. His head never hit the steering wheel, his 5 point harness stopped that. Because he wasn't wearing a HANS device his head snapped forward and his 5 point stopped his forward motion. When his head went back it scrambled his brains. If he had been wearing a HANS device he would have walked away from that wreck as has many drivers that have been involved in wrecks much worse than his sense the mandate of wearing a device.
The only thing his open faced helmet added was that it was very heavy and added to the sudden acceleration and deceleration of his head.

His biggest contribution to NASCAR is, sadly his death. Because such a big name and hero died because he refused to wear a simple safety device NASCAR was forced to mandate them along with a complete overhaul of the safety aspect of the sport. The cars and tracks have completely changed. Death was a normal thing in the old days in all forms of racing. Senna and Earnhardt changed everything.

That was my understanding of the accident.

Yeah, but not quite. We're forgetting Fireball Roberts horrible crash and fire, which resulted in fuel cells becoming part of racing and Joe Weatherley's crash at Riverside which led to window nets.
How many drivers, young or experienced were killed by hitting concrete retaining walls? Now we've got foam blocks to lessen the impact.
Racing cars is inherently dangerous. Drivers and car builders at ALL levels recognize this, and most do everything in their power to lessen the danger.
But there are those who for whatever reason, usually personal comfort or monetary reasons, take shortcuts.
NASCAR has always tried to be proactive towards safety, IMO. But there are always instances where the danger overtakes the safety measures. It's unfortunate, but there's never progress without risk.
Dale would tell you that. So would Roger Chafee.
7mm

I still miss him on the track. NASCAR hasn’t been the same since and started dying that day.

Grew up near Hueytown Alabama. More than one "old head" has told me Clifford Allison was the real deal sadly he died too young. I look at today's racers and they should be great full they don't have to chase men named Bonnet Allison Pearson Petty.I've seen firsthand some of the charity Dale Sr. did and won't speak of it publicly least some think I'm a braggart or something. Do know that Dale&Neil loved deer hunting.

A friend of mine has a little brother who is a crew chief on one of Jr's teams, she tells me Jr is a class act just like his dad was. He does a lot of things for people and seeks no recognition for it.

Absolutely, positively agree.

Working for a parts supplier & sponsor, I had an annual NASCAR credential for several years & got to meet many of the drivers & crew during the later '80's through early 2000's, including Earnhardt.

Best driver to ever sit in a seat, IMO; except for some horrendously ad luck, he should have won at least a couple of more Datona 500..............he owned that track in every respect, same for Talledega.

His come from behind win there is 2000 is likely a feat never to be repeated.

MM

Despite him being from Alabama, I was a Davey fan too. I still have the Davey Allison tribute shirt that they came out with after he died. New fans don’t even know who Davey was.

I saw Dale at Charlotte come back from two laps down to win the race. An amazing feat for him and his crew. That was one incredible victory lane celebration! I was sitting in the GM Grandstand, in front of an arrogant yankee that was pulling for Darryl Waltrip. Pos ran his mouth the whole race as Dale and his team struggled. He vanished about the time Dale crosses the finish line.

I watched the wreck on TV, and it was pretty apparent that something was terribly wrong, even though the crash didn't look that bad. When the ambulance pulled away slowly after they got Earnhardt out of the car, I mentioned to my wife "Either he's not badly hurt, or he's dead". Unfortunately, I was right. Back in the early 1950's, the cars my father built were outrunning the grandfathers of some of the current NASCAR stars. One night at a 1/4 mile dirt track in Columbia Tennessee, our driver chased Coo Coo Marlin (Sterling's father) under the grandstands and threatened him with a big hawkbill knife- - - - -he didn't like the fact that Coo Coo had spun him out!
Jerry

I'd heard both of these scenarios. I thought the HANS was developed/refined as a result of Dales death but maybe I have that wrong and the mandate was the result.

The HANS Device had already been developed and tested. NASCAR was trying to get people to start wearing it. It was developed after Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin were also killed from Basilar Skull Fracture. Earnie Ervin also suffered the same thing, but he survived. It's when the skull detaches from the spine. Earnhhardt refused to wear it, as did JR. There were only a few guys that were wearing the HANS. It was after Earnhardt's death when it was made mandatory.

There was something else that happened during the crash if I remember correctly. The left shoulder harness broke, but they don't know if it contributed to his death. I think that's were the theory of him hitting his head on the steering wheel came from. Simpson (the manufacturer) was under investigation for that.

until he ran up against someone that was not intimidated.