The day Dale Earnhardt died was the day NASCAR died (or at least the NASCAR I knew)

For many, their love and infatuation with NASCAR ended the day NASCAR’s biggest star, Dale Earnhardt, died on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway.

While trying to defend his piece of real estate on the last lap Dale’s rear bumper made contact with Stirling Marlin’s Coors Lite Silver Bullet Dodge and then veered right toward the outside retaining wall. Before Dale hit the wall his car came into contact with Kenny Schrader’s bright yellow M&M’s powered machine which changed the direction of Dale’s black number three Goodwrench Chevy into an almost perpendicular trajectory to the wall - in other words, he went head-on into the wall.

Since that moment on February 18, 2001 there have been many people stating the reasons why Dale died - it was the seat-belt, it was the hardness of the wall, it was the way the car was built with no crush zones, he wasn’t wearing a full-face helmet, he had no HANS-like device, and so on.

Honestly, once its said and done the fact remains that Dale is gone and with his death NASCAR lost a lot of fans - I know, I was one of them - and NASCAR was forever changed.

Once Dale died I lost interest in NASCAR. Sure I watched the next few races. Steve Park’s win was good - but it still made me sad that Dale wasn’t there to see his driver pull into victory lane. Harvick’s win was pretty freakin’ awesome - but still, that should have been Dale driving that car. I cried none-the-less, it was an emotional win for the team and their new driver.

But once that race was over I was done with NASCAR - as a die-hard anyway. I didn’t watch another full flag to flag race for years after. I watched parts of races if I happened to be around a T.V. and it was on but I didn’t record any races to watch later and I certainly never went to any races either.

I became an absentee fan of sorts - I still enjoyed stock car racing but I wasn’t interested in the product on T.V. anymore.

I remained that way for about five years and then I slowly started coming back to NASCAR again, but I wasn’t the same fan I used to be - not even close - but I was back none-the-less.

I’m still not that fan I used to be, and honestly I don’t think I will ever be that type of fan again and I don’t think anyone that was a Dale Earnhardt fan will ever be the same kind of fan they were before he died - if they come back to NASCAR at all that is.

Sure a lot of Dale Earnhardt Junior’s fan base came from his Daddy, but let’s face it they aren’t the same fans now that they were when Dale Sr. was alive and to be honest with you it isn’t even fair for Dale Jr. to shoulder the unachievable expectations placed on him by these transplanted fans - but that is another story altogether.

When Dale Earnhardt died a part of me died too and a part of NASCAR died. In the aftermath of Dale’s death everyone was looking to place blame on someone or something for the cause of his death - Stirling Marlin even received death threats.

A lot of fans blamed NASCAR for Dale’s death naming the restrictor plates and aerodynamic packages as the cause while others thought it was NASCAR’s inaction to make racing safer after the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin (to name a few). Faulty equipment and lack of driver safety features in the car and in equipment used by Dale were blamed as well.

It was this angst over Dale’s death that drove fans away and caused NASCAR to change the way they did things.

Good or bad, NASCAR was forever changed as a result. The NASCAR at the turn of the century died when Dale hit that wall.

The NASCAR that emerged from the aftermath of Dale’s death is now safety conscious, and we now have The Chase, a new points system, the car of tomorrow, the HANS device, Safer Barriers, foreign car manufacturers, and so on.

As fans from back then slowly came back to NASCAR they have found that the NASCAR they knew wasn’t the NASCAR they were now seeing - things were different.

For some it was difficult to accept the changes while others went along with it because they loved the sport too much to stay away. I think I’d fall into the second category although I can honestly say that I’m more of a fan of the sport than the fan of any one driver in particular - those days are done, I couldn’t invest as much into another driver as I did in Dale.

Would the changes in NASCAR, especially in the area of safety have happened if Dale wouldn’t have died? I don’t know, I’d like to think so anyway. However I don’t believe they would have happened as fast as they did though.

But here’s what I do know:

1) NASCAR is safer for the drivers now - probably more so now than in any other time in NASCAR history

2) NASCAR will never be like it was prior to the death of Dale Earnhardt

3) NASCAR still has a lot of displaced Earnhardt fans out there who are unsure of the new NASCAR

4) NASCAR is now listening to their fans more than ever before (yes I do think its true)

5) NASCAR will never have another Dale Earnhardt

6) It has been ten years since Dale died and NASCAR, for good or bad, is still feeling the effects of his death - I know I am.

It is too bad it had to take the death of Dale Earnhardt to change the old NASCAR into the new NASCAR. I wish that in this case I could have my cake and eat it too, that way Dale would still be alive and NASCAR would be the safety conscious entity it is now.

As the years go by and future NASCAR historians look back at NASCAR they will find that Dale Earnhardt’s legacy to NASCAR will not be his driving skills, wins or seven Championships, it will be the changes made by NASCAR as a result of his death. For me, as a die-hard Earnhardt fan, that isn’t the way it was supposed to be - his legacy should have been his driving skills, wins, and quite possibly a record setting eight Championships.