If Dale Earnhardt Were Alive Today …
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
I was crawling the Internet looking for some NASCAR related media when I stumbled upon this article written by Ben White (Senior Editor NASCAR Illustrated) entitled “One Great Man, One Simple Question”.
What Ben did was ask many people in the NASCAR Garage area ranging from drivers to owners and from former crew members to Dale Jr himself, one simple question, “What would Dale Earnhardt’s life be like if he were here today?”
Everyone seemed to echo the same responses; he would be hunting more, he would be heavily involved with DEI, Dale Jr would still be at DEI, when Dale spoke NASCAR listened, etc., but two comments really stuck out for me. One was Elliott Sadler’s (driver, #19 Dodge):
“Dale was really good at talking to the young drivers just getting into the Cup series. He was always giving the rookies hints and advice. I think the kids coming into the sport would have a better attitude about things. They wouldn’t be so hotheaded and ‘punkish.’
“Dale Earnhardt really knew how to put you in your place and set you straight. He reminded you how hard to race each other, how to take care of each other and to make sure you took care of the fans and sponsors. He was a great role model.”
I have to say I agree with Elliott, do you think Carl Edwards would have done some of the stupid things he has if Dale Sr were alive? I’d like to see Carl’s face after Dale Sr got a hold of him after Carl went all “Days of Thunder” on Jr at Michigan.
The other statement I found interesting was Kenny Wallace’s (part time driver and Speed TV analyst):
“If not for the death of Dale Earnhardt, the soft walls wouldn’t be as prominent and the HANS device wouldn’t be as popular — you might even be called a wimp if you had one. All of the state-of-the-art safety equipment might not be inside these race cars today. His death was not in vain.
He was very influential with Mr. France and Mike Helton because they truly listened to what Dale had to say. Dale filled up the grandstands, just like his boy does today. I truly feel the sport would be headed in an entirely different direction. That’s how strong Dale Earnhardt was. If he were alive, we may not even have the car of tomorrow.”
Wow. You know, there might be some truth in that statement.
Certainly Dale was old school, but I do honestly think that he would have seen the light as far as safety is concerned - he was always concerned with Dale Jr’s safety - and Dale was not a stupid man, he and Richard Childress made improvements in their race cars after Dale’s huge crash at Talladega that NASCAR later mandated for all other teams. But I do think more people would have been injured (or even died) needlessly before NASCAR would have acted like they did when Dale died.
The speedy advances in safety and the like would probably have taken longer to be introduced for sure. I think things like the HANs device would have made their way into NASCAR, but they would have be more optional at first rather than a requirement. Would Dale have worn a HANs? Probably not, but I think he would have worn an early version of the Hutchens Device which was less restrictive than the HANs at the time and was being tested by RCR through Bobby Hutchens, the General Manager for RCR.
Would we have the CoT? Don’t know. Maybe, to some degree anyway, but it would probably look different than it is now.
As Jeff Gordon stated in the article, Dale tried to look at every issue from all points (driver, NASCAR, sponsors, etc.) and then make his decision and certainly that side of him would have eventually seen the need for safety improvements, just how long would that have taken? Don’t know.
So maybe Kenny is right when he said that the sport of NASCAR would be headed in a totally different direction. I think NASCAR would maybe not be as safe as it is now, but still better than it was when Dale died.
So what is your take on this? Here is an added bonus question, “If Dale Earnhardt were here today, would we have the Chase format?”
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