Tragedy At Daytona : A collaborative TL

We all know how Dale Earnhardt's death was one of the biggest tragedies in the history of American motorsports, well what
if the younger Earnhardt died in the 2001 Daytona 500 in his place.

The POD is Lap 197:

Dale Jr., currently running 2nd, makes a move to the outside in an attempt to gain the lead from
his DEI teammate in Michael Waltrip, unfortunately, the move doesn't work as he gets shuffled back to 5th. With one lap to go, Jr. is battling for 4th, when he and the 36 car of Ken Schrader, tangle entering turn 1, and Jr's #8 car is spun head first into the turn 2 wall, at 180 MPH (similar to Sr's fatal crash in OTL) , as the wrecked car slides down in front of traffic, the #26 of Jimmy Spencer (nothing against Mr. Excitement, just picked a random driver) T-Bones Jr.'s car. on the drivers side. Both cars come to rest in the infield grass, both Jr. and Spencer have to be rushed to Halifax Medical Center, while Jimmy is diagnosed with a concussion and an L1 fracture, however, Jr., sadly didn't make it, he was pronounced dead on arrival, believed cause of death: basiliar skull fracture from blunt force trauma.

News didn't leak until after victory lane celebrations, when race winner Michael Waltrip, and his car owner, Dale Earnhardt (who finished in 2nd), were pulled aside and privately told the news that Jr. had to be rushed to Halifax Medical Center, the facial expression on Michael and Dale's face after that, let the fans watching at home know, this was a very serious situation.
At 6:30 PM, Mike Helton made the announcement nobody wanted to hear, "Due to the injuries, the accident in turn 2 in the last lap of the Daytona 500, we have lost Dale Earnhardt Jr."
 
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It's tragic, to be sure. I wonder if it impacts NASCAR as much as Dale Sr's death: does it produce adoption of HANS? I'm thinking not.
 
Enough to open the conversation, hopefully.

Has Adam Petty had his crash yet?
There'd be talk anyhow, but you've got to have a big star killed, IMO, to get NASCAR to move. (Or, arguably, any governing body...) (And a quick look at WP says yes, Petty was dead already.)

This is a bit like 1994: if Ratzenberger had been the only one to die, not much would have changed. Or, put another way, if Jim Clark had gotten killed instead of, say, von Trips or Schlesser, safety would've been taken more seriously.
 
My point is that young stars like Petty and Earnhardt, Jr. are getting killed, threatening the future of the sport. Could cause some reappraisal in NASCAR circles.
 
My point is that young stars like Petty and Earnhardt, Jr. are getting killed, threatening the future of the sport. Could cause some reappraisal in NASCAR circles.
True. The flipside is, they're considered young, inexperienced, & not a smart as they think they are, so more likely to get killed--& there's more where that came from. Dale Sr, OTOH, has been around since the dinosaurs (almost), so he should know how not to get killed... Plus, he's famous, where the noobs (even Jr.) are less so. (Cynical, I know.;))
 
Dale Sr. knew how to not get killed, but he didn't use that knowledge. He wore the old open-face helmet, didn't wear fireproof gloves for years, and had his seatbelts rigged contrary to how Bill Simpson recommended.
 
Dale Sr. knew how to not get killed, but he didn't use that knowledge. He wore the old open-face helmet, didn't wear fireproof gloves for years, and had his seatbelts rigged contrary to how Bill Simpson recommended.
:eek:

But notice, I said "should"... And I was saying it from the (notional) POV of NASCAR's head office. If I'm wrong, why, with an equally famous (more famous?) name, didn't Adam Petty's death lead to big changes? Because he wasn't a big enough audience draw. Dale Sr was.
 
We all know how Dale Earnhardt's death was one of the biggest tragedies in the history of American motorsports, well what
if the younger Earnhardt died in the 2001 Daytona 500 in his place.

I am confused as to how this is one of the biggest tragedies in motor sports? How many accidents involved more deaths, some many more, as cars or parts of cars went into the stands? It is one of the more well known accidents, but with one dead, not dozens or more.
 
I am confused as to how this is one of the biggest tragedies in motor sports? How many accidents involved more deaths, some many more, as cars or parts of cars went into the stands? It is one of the more well known accidents, but with one dead, not dozens or more.
Not the crash itself, but the effect of the crash. NASCAR lost it's greatest driver ever, millions of people lost their hero. It was essentially the equivalent of Michael Jordan dying in his prime.
 
There are those of us who think Richard was better...
Eh, I am not gonna get into that, this is a topic not about the best driver ever, it's about what would happen if NASCAR lost one of it's young stars too early.
You are free to add on news reports in this TL, as well as interviews
 
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