One of the Strangest Dale Earnhardt Stories: The Mystery of the 1997 NASCAR Southern 500

• The start of the 1997 Southern 500 resulted in one of the most bizarre moments in Dale Earnhardt’s long and illustrious career.

• On the race’s first green-flag lap, Earnhardt’s familiar black Chevrolet banged into the outside wall in Turn 1, and it wasn’t due to any contact from another car.

• “He was groggy before the race started,” said team owner Richard Childress of Earnhardt. “We couldn’t communicate on the radio.”

It was a Southern 500 that no one in Dale Earnhardt’s inner circle in particular—and in his vast network of fans in general—is likely to forget.

August 31, 1997. Darlington Raceway.

The start of the race 25 years ago resulted in one of the most bizarre moments in Earnhardt’s long and illustrious career.

Trouble started in the minutes before the race when the typical pre-race radio talk between driver and pit crew—“Any issues?” “Ready to go?” “Good luck out there”—produced the day’s first mystery.

“He was groggy before the race started,” said team owner Richard Childress of Earnhardt. “We couldn’t communicate on the radio.”

Recognizing that Earnhardt might be in trouble, Childress tried to urge him to drop onto pit road during the parade laps, but Earnhardt didn’t react.

On the race’s first green-flag lap, Earnhardt’s familiar black Chevrolet banged into the outside wall in Turn 1. The thought that he might simply have made a mistake or blown a tire disappeared when virtually the same thing happened in Turn 2. Clearly, something was wrong with the car or with Earnhardt.

On the radio, the No. 3 crew tried to direct Earnhardt to pit road.

Veteran racing photographer Phil Cavali was standing in a team’s pit wagon along pit road when Earnhardt’s car stopped off Turn 2.

“Safety workers ran over and put the window net down, and the next thing I know they pull him out of the car,” Cavali said. “They carried him across the track and across pit road. They brought him underneath the pit box where I was standing. They had an oxygen mask on him, and his uniform was unzipped. Looked like his eyes were closed—like he was totally out of it or dazed somewhat.”

Indeed, it was a shocking visual for those on the scene. Earnhardt, one of the toughest racers of his generation, sprawled out, apparently unconscious or very close to it, as one of the biggest races of the season roared to life without him.

In the busy panorama that is the start of a NASCAR race at the sport’s oldest big track, there was more than a little tension surrounding one of the sport’s kingpins.

In the Earnhardt pit, confusion reigned. Although Earnhardt had been a bit quieter than normal during pre-race, there hadn’t been cause for concern. The veteran driver sometimes was so calm and composed before practices or races that he fell asleep in the car.

“We were busy getting the car ready, and I hadn’t seen Dale that morning,” said long-time Richard Childress Racing crew member Danny “Chocolate” Myers. “Sometimes he would be around; sometimes not. But everything seemed as normal as it could be. Then all of a sudden we hear the hit the wall.”

When Earnhardt didn’t drop onto pit road, it became obvious that something was amiss inside the car. Now there were two big concerns in the RCR pit: What’s was wrong with Earnhardt? And, if he couldn’t continue in competition, who would drive his car?

“What were we going to do?” Myers said. “I remember people started looking for Mike Dillon (a regular in NASCAR’s No. 2 series and Childress’ son-in-law). He had run the day before. We had to check with NASCAR to see if that was OK. All that had to happen in a hurry.”

Dillon ran to the RCR pit and climbed in Earnhardt’s car. He would finish 30th, earning that spot for Earnhardt, who was credited with the result because he started the race in the car. Dillon would officially compete in only one Cup race in his career, that coming the following year.

Earnhardt was carried to the track’s infield care center. Childress talked to him briefly there and reported that his driver was alert before he was transported to a hospital in nearby Florence for observation and tests.

In the track’s control tower, NASCAR officials watched the Earnhardt drama unfold even as they directed the start of the race. Among those present were competition official (and future NASCAR president) Mike Helton and director of business operations Kevin Triplett, who three years earlier had worked as Earnhardt’s public relations director.

“A, you don’t see things like that happen, and B, you didn’t see it from the driver of that car,” Triplett said. “It didn’t add up. There was no real indication before the race about trouble. He sat in his car and slept all the time, so looking at him and seeing him nodded over in the car would have been as common as hearing, ‘Gentlemen, start your engines.’”

Triplett went to the care center immediately. “There was confusion, and I don’t mean from the medical people,” he said. “The people with the team, the looks on their faces showed the confusion about what had happened.”

Jeff Gordon eventually won the race (and a million-dollar bonus), and fans left the speedway without any clear information about what had happened to Earnhardt.

Helton and Triplett visited Earnhardt in the Florence hospital after the race. “He was alert, like there was nothing wrong,” Triplett said. “But there hadn’t been a conclusion about what had happened.”

NASCAR officials soon told Earnhardt that he would have to undergo a series of medical tests before being cleared to race the next weekend at Richmond, Virginia.

A team of doctors examined Earnhardt at a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, hospital, found no cause for his problem at the start of the Darlington race and pronounced him OK to race at Richmond.

At a Richmond press conference as the race weekend opened, Earnhardt said doctors had checked him for everything other than a pregnancy. Standing and looking fit and strong after a tense week, he gave every indication that he expected no health issues moving forward. “I’m confident it’s not going to happen again,” he said.

Triplett stood beside Earnhardt as he spoke.

“He had gone through a battery of tests,” Triplett said. “One of the doctors who had run the tests was there. He was a neurosurgeon and had dealt with this sort of thing. He found nothing that would have prevented him from racing. Dale felt good. He was healthy with no residual effects. It was almost like it was just a small episode.

“None of us who don’t go through medical school know all the details, but we know enough to know it was concerning. Here you have a guy who’s always had this reputation as being strong as a bull, and you’re looking at him with not even any visible symptoms. Wow, what happened?”

Earnhardt’s incident at Darlington 25 years ago occurred during one of the valleys in his career. Starting the race that afternoon, he had not won since March 1996. His career had been in a statistical decline since his seventh (and last) championship in 1994.

He won five races in 1995, two in ’96, none in ’97 and only six from 1998 through 2000.

Did you catch the 1997 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway? Share your memories in the comments below.