February 18, 2001: Death at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - You didn't have to be a racing fan to have the news hit home. In fact, you barely had to follow sports at all. Many people who had never seen a stock car had heard of the name Dale Earnhardt and at least heard of the Daytona 500. So to hear the news from February 18, 2001, was as shocking as it gets, the headline flashing across websites hitting you like a punch to the gut: Earnhardt killed at Daytona.

You don't have to know much about NASCAR to understand that. The sport's biggest star killed in the sports biggest race. It was like Babe Ruth having a heart attack and dying during a World Series game, like Joe Montana getting killed by a hit during the Super Bowl. But then if you cared enough to get the details of what happened, it gets even more chilling; Earnhardt's death happened on the final lap, as he was trying to keep competitors away from his race-leading teammates. Now change those previous analogies: it would be like Ruth having that heart attack between third base and home plate after hitting a walk-off home run, or Montana suffering that hit a split second after throwing the game-winning touchdown pass.

As shocking as the news was people who don't follow racing probably weren't too entirely surprised. After all, crashes happen all the time in car races - isn't that the allure of them? - so you could say that NASCAR got lucky that it had been so long since a crash killed one of its big stars.

But then people looked at a replay of the crash and it looked ... well, pedestrian. There have been many crashes replayed countless times that looked much, much worse that ended with the driver walking away shaking his head. So how did this crash kill Earnhardt? There was only one other car involved, and that car hit him on the passenger side. Aren't those walls padded, the cars filled with impeccable safety devices? You'd think a simple crash into the wall wouldn't be fatal.

But when that simple crash into the wall is nearly head-on, at 160 miles an hour, it's a different story. He hit the wall at the same time he was hit by the car coming from behind, causing the car to crack. The force of the crash caused the hood to fly up and crash into the windshield. In short, Earnhardt never had a chance. He was dead before the paramedics got to him.

Earnhardt's death threw NASCAR into unprecedented mourning. The same people who were overcome with joy when Earnhardt finally won his first Daytona 500 were shocked into sadness. For the rest of the year, all race personnel, from drivers to fans to announcers, kept completely silent on the third lap of every race to honor Earnhardt and his number 3. To this day, he is mourned like no driver before him.

His death also brought sweeping changes, starting with the investigation into his death. There was both a police investigation and a NASCAR-sponsored one, leading to graphic, detailed descriptions of the fatal injuries he suffered. Earnhardt refused to wear the Head-and-Neck Support device designed to prevent injuries such as those he suffered; after he died, the HANS device became mandatory. Many of the changes had been discussed previously, especially after three NASCAR drivers were killed in 2000 alone, but it was Earnhardt's death that sped up the process.

Earnhardt is still mourned in NASCAR circles, is still considered one of the more popular drivers in its history. His son, Dale Jr., who finished second the day his father died, retains some of that popularity today. Earnhardt's death on the final lap in 2001 has become the most stunning and memorable moment in NASCAR history.

February 15, 1998: A 20-year wait

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It was a poignant scene. Dale Earnhardt, slowly driving down pit row, giving high fives, while pit crew members stood by the wall to congratulate him. Not just his pit crew members, mind you, but every member of every team was standing along that wall, congratulating and honoring The Intimidator.

To the uninitiated, it might seem strange to see rival teams congratulating a man they had just spent 200 laps trying to beat, but that doesn't explain the respect that everybody involved in NASCAR had for Earnhardt. The man had been unquestionably the best driver for two decades, having won seven championships and 76 races in his career, but he had never won the big one. In two decades of greatness, he had never won the Daytona 500.

Until now.

The 1998 race was one of the cleanest Daytona 500s in memory. There were only three cautions all race, and all were for minor incidents. In fact, no driver had to leave the race for crash-related reasons. Because of this, it was the third-fastest Daytona on record, despite being run in the restrictor-plate era.

Bobby Labonte started the race on the pole but soon gave up his lead to Jeff Gordon, who kept the lead through the early portions and through the first caution. As the drivers went to the pits during the second caution, and Earnhardt came out in first place, and he stayed at or near the front for the rest of the race.

As Earnhardt was driving in lap 198, he was trying to hold off Labonte and Jeremy Mayfield. With two turns to go in the lap, there was a spin-out behind the leaders, and the caution flag came out. This meant that, suddenly, the car in the lead the next time they crossed the finish line would be the winner, as the race would end under caution. The three leaders came upon a lapped car; Earnhardt easily passed the lapped car on the outside, but Mayfield went inside, losing Earnhardt's draft. That gave Earnhardt the edge needed to hold off and claim the long-elusive Daytona 500.

The normal emotions of competition went by the wayside as Earnhardt earned the checkered flag. Race announcers didn't hide their pleasure and joy that The Intimidator had finally won. The scene with the rival pit crew members congratulating Earnhardt brought chills to most race fans.

Earnhardt never won another Daytona 500, but it didn't matter. To him, and to many race fans, his victory in NASCAR's most prestigious race was the feather in the cap of his great career.

November 15, 1992: Shifting gears

HAMPTON, Ga. - There were subplots galore as the 1992 NASCAR season wrapped up. Going into the season-ending Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, six drivers had a mathematical chance of winning the Winston Cup. The increased number of contenders gave the last race of the season much more importance than normal.

Even without the tightened title chase, the race was going to have added importance as the last race in the great career of Richard Petty. Petty, NASCAR's all-time wins leader by a long shot, announced in 1991 that he would race one more season. Breaking from the traditional retirement path of past stars, who often rode in a reduced schedule in their final few seasons, Petty announced he would race a full schedule in 1992, in essence giving him a season-long farewell tour.

Petty almost made his last race an anticlimactic affair, qualifying only 39th out of 41 cars and barely making the field. Then, Petty was caught up in a crash during the 95th lap. His car on fire, he was able to steer it to the infield and escape to safety. His crew spent the rest of the race trying to piece the car back together, and they succeeded, with Petty going back out for the final two laps to ensure he wouldn't end his racing career with his car sitting in the garage.

While the race was the last in Petty's career, it was the first race in the career of Jeff Gordon. Though it wasn't seen this way at the time, Gordon's subsequent success in NASCAR has led to this race being seen as a sort of passing of the torch in NASCAR. It was the only time that Petty and Gordon, two of the most successful and popular drivers in NASCAR history, ever raced against each other.

Meanwhile, the championship chase itself came down to strategic decisions by the drivers. Crashes and car trouble eliminated all but two of the championship contenders; Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki were neck-and-neck in the overall standings and in the race itself.

During his first pit stop, Kulwicki lost first gear in his car, giving him a distinct disadvantage any time he was entering or exiting the pit stops. Still, he remained near the front of the pack. With about 20 laps to go, the cars started leaving for their final pit stops, but Kulwicki stayed on the track. He knew that with how close the championship chase was, the winner could come down to which driver led the most laps in the last race. Kulwicki added two more laps to his total before coming in for a pit, then did a gas-and-go stop, rather than changing tires. He sacrificed race performance doing this, but he reduced the risk of stalling out in the pit area so close to the finish.

The strategy worked. While Kulwicki was passed and ended up finishing the race in second, he the most laps with 103, which was one more than Elliott, who won the race. By leading one more lap than Elliott, Kulwicki got 10 bonus points in the standings rather than five, which was just enough points to give him the championship. If he had pitted two laps earlier as advised by his pit crew, Kulwicki would have finished second in the standings.

The close finish, both on the track and in the standings, combined with the passing of the torch from Richard Petty to Jeff Gordon, have made the 1992 Hooters 500 one of the most memorable races in NASCAR history.

May 30, 1911: The Brickyard debuts

INDIANAPOLIS - It was an interesting idea, and a bit of a risk. Disappointed in the dwindling attendance at their various races throughout the year, the organizers of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway decided to scrap the smaller races and hold one large, prestigious race annually on Memorial Day weekend. For it to work, the race had to be long enough to draw attention, have enough prize money available to draw the best competitors, and be competed in a timeframe appropriate enough for the most number of fans.

That was how the Indianapolis 500 was born. After the Speedway organizers announced the annual race, to be held on May 30, 1911, interest was instant. There had never been a 500-mile race before, and experts all around the country took turns trying to figure out how the cars of the day could handle going that far. Intrigued by the race, and by the then-record purse of $27,700, top teams from around the country and the world started entering the competition.

Meanwhile, the IMS organizers had a race to put together. To address complaints about the low-quality racing surface, they covered the track with 3.2 million bricks. They accepted all teams willing to pay the exorbitant $500 entry fee, but said that only cars that could maintain a speed of at least 75 miles and hour for a quarter-mile would qualify.

Forty cars went to the starting line for the inaugural race, competing in front of 80,000 spectators. The cars were placed in the starting grid not by their qualifying time but in the order in which they applied for the race.

After 6 hours, 42 minutes of racing, Ray Harroun was declared the winner of the first race, but his win was not without controversy. First, competitors complained that Harroun was a hazard on the track, as he was the only driver competing without a "riding mechanic," someone tasked with checking the oil pressure and look out for other cars around him. The latter of those jobs was rendered moot when Harroun installed a rear-view mirror in his car, widely believed to be the first time a rear-view mirror was used. More controversy came from the finish, when Ralph Mulford claimed to have lapped Harroun when Harroun went in for a pit stop. Officials said that since Mulford pitted soon after, Harroun made up the difference. He was declared the winner, and he never raced again.

The Indy 500 has been held every year since, with the exception of the two World Wars. And though it has fallen back a bit in prestige in American racing, it is still the most-attended single sporting event in the world.