NASCAR Crashes - Part of every great race!
Being a Winston Cup and now Nextel racing fan since 1993, I have seen many NASCAR crashes. Some were minor fender benders, others completely tore cars apart. NASCAR crashes are always a serious concern for the safety of the drivers driving the cars. Nextel Cup racing has become much safer in recent years. There have been many safety upgrades such as the flaps on the roofs of the cars, the HANS’s device, and restrictor plates.
One of the worst NASCAR crashes I ever witnessed involved my favorite driver, Rusty Wallace. It happened in 1993 at Talladega at the end of the Winston 500. Rusty was still driving his black and yellow Miller Genuine Draft car then. Rusty was racing to the finish line and pulled down to block Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt got into him, sending Rusty’s car airborne. I remember vividly watching Rusty and his car tumble and roll, end over end, flipping wildly across the finish line, down the front stretch, and into the grass. It was the scariest thing I’d ever seen, as a rather new race fan, and here was my new-found favorite driver involved in one of the worst NASCAR crashes ever. Rusty, miraculously, came out of it alive, with only a broken wrist, and lots of bruises. Rusty took the blame for the wreck, but of course, since I hated Earnhardt then, I blamed him. Rusty states in his book, The Decision to Win that “It’s a rough deal, but there are no hard feelings. We’re real good friends.” I always think it is surprising how after many NASCAR crashes, the drivers involved always seemed to mend fences and go on.
But perhaps the worst of NASCAR crashes to this day occurred on February 18, 2001 at the Daytona 500. It happened on the last lap, in the last turn, and it took the life of the legend himself, Dale Earnhardt. We had all seen NASCAR crashes that appeared worse, where the car was torn up bad, like Rusty’s at Talladega. No one expected the outcome of this accident to be what it was. Although I didn’t like Earnhardt for many years, I had gained a respect for him and even started to like him after a while. He was “old school” like Rusty, so I respected him and acknowledged what an outstanding driver he was. I don’t think any race fan will ever forget that day, and that day certainly changed racing.
I think all of the safety precautions they have taken since Earnhardt’s death are necessary to protect the lives of the drivers. NASCAR crashes are just a part of the exciting sport of racing. As Earnhardt would often say after a wreck “that’s racin’.”