August 30, 2007
By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

It's been six and a half years since Black Sunday - the term used by citizens of the NASCAR nation to describe the day Dale Earnhardt died.

Earnhardt was killed in the last turn on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Running third in the race, he had dropped back to protect the lead of the two frontrunners who were driving for his race team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

Michael Waltrip went on to take the checkers for his first win in 463 Cup starts, unaware of the tragedy that was unfolding a short distance behind him in turn four, as was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second.

Earnhardt Sr.'s car crashed after contact heading into the turn, slamming the wall at 180 miles per hour. He died upon impact.

For a time it seemed inconceivable that NASCAR could go on without the man who embodied the heart of the sport for so many people. Dale Jr., age 26 at the time, was among the first to publicly encourage competitors and fans alike to carry on. "We'll get through this," he said within days of his father's death. "I'm sure he'd want us to keep going, and that's what we're going to do."

Nowadays, Earnhardt Sr.'s name and memory is spoken aloud less often than it once was, which is to be expected.

But don't mistake the passage of time as an indication that Earnhardt's legacy has diminished, or that his absence is felt any less than it once was.

The loss of the black No. 3 left a void as deep as a black hole, particularly for the sport's older participants who still remember how pervasive Earnhardt's influence was, both in the garage and in the inner sanctum of NASCAR.

Shortly after Earnhardt's death, driver Jimmy Spencer said, "I was talking to my dad today and I said to him, 'What are we gonna do as drivers?' We all congregated around (Dale). He was always one of the first drivers to go out for pre-race introductions, and I don't care if you were Rusty Wallace or Dale Jarrett or who it was, we all talked to him because he was the guy."

Darrell Waltrip said at the time, "We can't replace Dale Earnhardt. This is the worst thing, this is the biggest thing that's happened to this sport since I've been in it. Dale Earnhardt is known all over the world. This is like when John Kennedy got shot, or when Martin Luther King got shot."

But that was then, and this is now. Life goes on, and some people say it's past time we stopped talking about Dale Earnhardt.

Maybe. But coping with the loss of Earnhardt and the clout he carried with NASCAR's top brass is still an everyday reality for teams and drivers.

Multi-car owner Jack Roush is currently celebrating his 20th year of involvement in Cup racing. Roush appeared on Speed TV's "Victory Lane" program Sunday and was asked a general question about how the sport has changed in recent years.

His thoughts immediately turned to the absence of Dale Earnhardt.

"It's a different world now," Roush remarked. "Dale Earnhardt Sr. was -- man, he was the politician. He was the NASCAR doctor. He could get things through the sanctioning body that nobody else could, and that paid some dividends for him. He reaped the benefit from that. But, it's a different world today."

Indeed it is.

When Earnhardt was still racing, there was no such thing as the Chase for the Championship. There was no top-35 qualifying rule, no lucky dog pass, no Car of Tomorrow. The Rock was still on the Cup schedule and the Southern 500 was still held at Darlington on Labor Day weekend. Drivers weren't sentenced to anger management classes, and sponsors weren't involved in $100 million lawsuits.

Many things have changed in the past six and a half years and it's intriguing to speculate what the sport would look like today if Earnhardt was still around.

At the same time, his death, along with those of three other drivers the previous year, lead to vital safety changes that have no doubt saved other racers' lives. The improvements included mandatory use of the HANS device and the gradual installation of softer walls at NASCAR tracks around the country.

Though Earnhardt would not be driving any longer, he would probably still be active as a high-profile team owner, and likely would be an outspoken critic of the direction the sport has taken, at least in some areas.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be on a much different path as well. He'd be driving for DEI with his dad running the show, and there would be no public feud with step mom Teresa, and no plan to join rival Hendrick Motorsports next season. He would not be in the untenable position of having to defend Teresa, as he did last week, out of concern for the daughter she shares with Earnhardt Sr.

Of course, that's assuming that Earnhardt Jr. would survive the fiery crash of a Corvette he was driving in practice for an American Le Mans event in 2004.

Video of the wreck showed Junior unconscious in the cockpit for several seconds as flames swirled around him. He would later tell "60 Minutes" reporter Mike Wallace that he believes his father helped him narrowly escape death. "I think he had a lot to do with me getting out of that car," Junior said. "I don't know how else to put it. I don't want to put some weird psycho twist on it, like he was pulling me out or anything, but he had a lot to do with me getting out of that car. From the movement I made to unbuckle my belt, to laying on the stretcher, I have no idea what happened, how I got out."

"But what does your dad have to do with it?" asked Wallace.

"I don't have an explanation for it other than when I got into the infield care center, I had my PR man by the collar, screaming at him to find the guy that pulled me out of the car. He was like, 'Nobody helped you get out.' And I was like, 'That's strange, because I swear somebody had me underneath my arms and was carrying me out of the car. I mean, I swear to God."

"And that was your dad?" Wallace asked.

"Yeah. I don't know. You tell me," Earnhardt Jr. replied. "It freaks me out today just talking about it. It just gives me chills."

Shortly before his death, Earnhardt Sr. told Lee Spencer about his plans for life after racing: "In the grand scheme of things, it's unique to have all this, but I feel that Dale Earnhardt Jr. one day will be able to step in and run all this, and hopefully Kelley and Kerry and Taylor will all be involved too," he said. "They'll all run this and race out of here and then do great. Hopefully after I retire from driving, I'll be a great car owner for several years, then I can turn this over to the kids and let them run it and race on."

Sadly, Earnhardt's vision for his family, his company, and the future of sport he loved came to an abrupt and tragic end in February of 2001.

Still, like Jack Roush and others, I can't help but wonder what treatment the doctor of NASCAR would prescribe if he was here today.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.