NASCAR Loses an Intimidating Hero with a Well-Hidden Heart of Gold

• On Feb. 18, 2001 in Daytona Beach, Fla., seven-time NASCAR champion and enormously popular 76-race winner Dale Earnhardt died in the Daytona 500.

• To this day, countless millions of fans remember that moment with painful clarity.

• To them, that was the day NASCAR died. Since then, nothing about the sport has seemed the same.

For millions of music fans Feb. 3, 1959 stands among their saddest days. In a cornfield near Clear Lake, Iowa, a four-seat, single-engine plane crashed on takeoff, killing pilot Roger Peterson and rock superstars Buddy Holley, Richie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. After finishing a show, they were headed for another show in Moorhead, Minn.

Several years later Don McLean released the classic, “American Pie,” with its haunting refrain “the day the music died.”

Flash forward to Feb. 18, 2001 in Daytona Beach, Fla. On that Sunday afternoon, seven-time NASCAR champion and enormously popular 76-race winner Dale Earnhardt died in the Daytona 500. To this day, countless millions of fans remember that moment with painful clarity. To them, that was the day NASCAR died.

Since then, nothing about the sport has seemed the same.

In some ways, they’re right. Earnhardt was the only driver powerful enough to demand NASCAR’s attention and get it. Drivers often approached him with on- or off-track issues that needed fixing. Earnhardt would either fix it himself or walk directly to NASCAR’s office-trailer and ask for relief. Officials respected him enough to grant him an audience.

For more than a quarter-century he had been NASCAR’s rough-hewn, blue-collar, unapologetic, intimidating hero with a well-hidden heart of gold. People who didn’t follow stock car racing nevertheless knew of this undereducated but bright athlete from Kannapolis, N.C. His death notice appeared on Page 1 of the New York Times and his cover photo and account of his death were highlighted in several national publications including Sports Illustrated and Autoweek.