Final lap, final turn
By DICK BRINSTER
AP Sports Writer
February 18, 2001
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Final lap, final turn.
As Dale Earnhardt headed for that high-banked corner at the Daytona 500, racing real estate he had covered thousands of times, there was no sign of the deadly trouble that loomed.
Only seconds from the finish line of NASCAR's crown jewel Sunday night, Earnhardt was in third place, running interference for the two cars in front of him. They happened to be two he owned -- one driven by his son, Dale Jr., the other by winner Michael Waltrip.
All of a sudden, the black No. 3 car was bumped from behind, and disappeared from their rearview mirrors at 180 mph.
The back left corner of Earnhardt's car touched the Dodge driven by Sterling Marlin.
``I guess he thought he had cleared me, but he hit me and turned around,'' Marlin said.
Earnhardt's car then fishtailed slightly and briefly slid to its left, down toward the infield, before suddenly swinging back to the right and cutting across traffic at a sharp angle.
He clipped Ken Schrader, whose yellow Pontiac carried both cars hard into the concrete wall headfirst.
The replay of the crash was not as dramatic as an earlier fiery 19-car pileup in which one car flipped, but as a Fox-TV announcer said, ``TV does not do that justice. That is an incredible impact head-on.''
With Earnhardt's car already smoking and shredding at the front, Schrader's car stayed lodged into the passenger's side of the Chevrolet, forming a T. The cars careened again off the wall, plowing into the final turn and sliding to a stop on the infield grass.
Earnhardt had to be cut out of the crushed car.
``I guess someone got into Dale, because Dale got into me and went up,'' Schrader said. ``We hit pretty hard, and Dale hit harder.''
Dr. Steve Bohannon, the track's emergency medical services director, said Earnhardt died on impact with the concrete wall.
The fatal crash probably went unseen by many of the 195,000 fans at the track, who were focused on Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. racing to the line for the win.
While they were watching Waltrip take the checkered flag, medical workers, led by Dr. Albert Alison, raced to the wreckage of Earnhardt's car.
``When I arrived, there were a number or paramedics tending to him,'' Bohannon said. ``There was a paramedic in through the passenger window applying oxygen.''
