| ESPN Network: ESPN.com | RPM | NFL.com | NBA.com | NHL.com | ESPNdeportes | ABCSports | EXPN | FANTASY | |
|
|
|
| |
 |
  |
 |
 Start your engines! Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge! |
Monday, February 19 Daytona got what it designed By Bernie Lincicome Scripps Howard News Service Hauntingly, the words come back over the years. It was the first NASCAR race I ever covered, the Daytona 500, and Richard Petty and David Pearson had crashed on the final lap, just a little closer to the finish line than where Dale Earnhardt's Chevrolet settled Sunday, with Earnhardt almost certainly dead inside. "Give 'em a close finish and they'll be back next year," Petty said. "Give 'em a wreck at the end, and they'll bring a friend." Motorsports is about what happened Sunday, brave men risking death for private thrills and public reward. Daytona got what it wanted, got what it designed, got 50 lead changes and a wreck at the end, got a show for the fans. They'll bring a friend next year. This one will be talked about, not like last year's race when no one died, almost no one crashed, the lead changed only nine times all day and the winner had to apologize for racing like a drum major at the head of a very dull line. Bad television, bad show, not an ounce of breath was stolen, not a gasp was caused. How could NASCAR ever get to be the greatest racing circuit when its greatest race was a crawling queue? NASCAR had a brilliant solution: Tinker with the cars so they would go slower, not safer, just slower so they would bunch up within inches of each other at 190 mph. Thrills come out of such danger. And this would look very good on TV, justify the new contract with Fox Sports. Earnhardt's crash, on the last lap, wasn't even the most exciting. That came earlier and took out 19 cars, all in a bunch as planned, all so much mangled sheet metal flying and flapping around. It made very good TV pictures. Nobody died. Everybody sighed. Compared to that, Earnhardt's crash was wasted, not that there wasn't much videotape of it later on, nearly unnoticed as Michael Waltrip screamed first across the finish line, ahead of Earnhardt's son, Dale Jr., both driving Earnhardt cars. By this time Earnhardt was dead, though the official pronouncement would not come until later at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Fla. The greatest racer in stock cars, one of the greatest of all time, died as he lived. Earnhardt was known as the Intimidator for bullying others out of his way on the track. He was nudged out of a bunch of cars by Sterling Marlin, just a tap from behind, something Earnhardt had done three times already this race, once to Marlin, and instantly he was hood-first into a concrete wall with Ken Schrader cashing into him from the side, scraping him down the wall, and down off the turn, out of the way. I was once told that Daytona is a self-cleaning track. I'll say more about that later. We will get more details and we will get more theories. Blame will be given and driving gloves will be pointed. But everybody knew this could happen. Never was there a more accurate preview than before this race. Earnhardt himself joked that there would be no repeat of last year's boredom. And from the earlier qualifying races, one driver was astonished at the possible peril, proclaiming the track a madhouse and the drivers "a bunch of cannibals out there." Dale Earnhardt did not have to die -- no auto racer does. All he needs to do is never get into a race car. But when he does, death is on the list of options. If it were not, it might as well be track and field. Earnhardt had lost to Marlin in one of the qualifying races, and was not happy about it. One theory is that Earnhardt might have won the race himself Sunday but stayed back to block Marlin so he would not win, so Earnhardt's son would, or another of his team. Marlin had proclaimed that this was going to be "the best Daytona 500 since we've been racing." None of that matters. Not now. The miracle is that race drivers do not die every time they race. A.J. Foyt once grumbled that folks didn't wish him well as much as they wanted to be the last person to shake his hand. Before another Daytona 500, I drove around the Daytona track on one of those press promotions. Got the car up to 120 or so, where it had to be to stay up on the high bank. My guide put his foot on mine and pressed the accelerator to the floor, otherwise we would have gone sliding down to the infield. "Daytona," he said, "is a self-cleaning track. The bodies roll downhill." He laughed very loudly. I remembered that laugh Sunday and wondered what was the last sound Dale Earnhardt heard. |
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
Copyright ©2001 ESPN Internet Ventures. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information are applicable to this site. Click here for a list of employment opportunities at ESPN.com. |
