I was just watching something about it. I was wondering what exactly happnened. I was around 5 or 6 when he crashed. Can you tell me some of things that happen when a car is chrashing like the way he did.
2007-07-24 06:42:57 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Sports ➔ Auto Racing ➔ NASCAR
One thing about Dale Earnhardt Sr. is that he was very old school. He still used old school safety equipment at the time. That is one reason Nascar stepped up on making teams use new/improved safety gear.
He hit the wall head on about about 170 mph. Cars are very light because they are somewhat stripped down- thats why cars touch the wall and the entire side is somewhat caved in. Anyway, unlike a lot of times when someone hits the wall like that, he didn't swerve and then eventually crash, he went right into it in like 2 seconds so the car didn't have time to slow down any and maybe absorb more of the blow.
Also, it appeared he was just trying to have a 2, 3 finish (Junior was in front of him) instead of just trying to win the race like he used to.
2007-07-24 06:51:31 · answer #1 · answered by Korey 4 · 7⤊ 0⤋
OK I met the man that used to babysit Earnhardt's kids, and he said that first like others have mentioned he was an old school driver, and did not wear the H.A.N.S. device (head and neck restraint) he also wore an open faced helmet, which made matters worse. his seat belt had a patch sewn on it showing the manufacturer, but the sewing job weakened the belt, causing the belt to rip at the time of the impact, causing his head to slam into the steering wheel. He did die from a massive head injury, not from a broken neck, not from internal bleeding or anything else people may say. He just died from a blow to the head. But we all need to remember that he died doing the one thing he loved in this world, and at the track he loved.
2007-07-25 05:36:58 · answer #2 · answered by bigflirt2159 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He hit the turn 1 wall head on at aprox 180 miles an hour.
At the time of his accident drivers did not wear any kind of head restraints. When he hit the wall his seatbelts held his body in place but his head snapped forward snapping off the spine at the base of the skull. All drivers must now wear a head and neck restraint system to keep this from happening again, otherwise known as a HANS device.
2007-07-24 23:20:56 · answer #3 · answered by Michael A 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The car that DEI and Childress were using at daytona (called the RAD car) was built with thicker and heavier steel tubing in the front. This provided more nose weight which kept the car out of the air and made it faster. particularly in bump drafting. This car was designed to race, not to wreck. And to keep more of technical jargon out of this, when dale hit the wall, the front end of his car did not absorb the impact and collapse as it should of if it were built with thinner tubing. This resulted in all of the force that the car should of taken, being placed on dale's body and neck. His neck stretched so far from those forces that it broke it.
2007-07-24 16:18:04 · answer #4 · answered by thegoose 1 · 3⤊ 0⤋
All this technical stuff about a broken neck and safety equipment is true, but Dale died because he was doing something he'd never done before--he was trying to protect a win for someone else rather than going for the win himself. If he'd have kept charging hard instead of blocking for Jr. and Waltrip he'd probably still be with us today.
2007-07-24 15:37:39 · answer #5 · answered by bobdanailer69 3 · 7⤊ 0⤋
He had a broken neck (well, technically a basal skull fracture I think) because the safety features back then weren't what they are today. He did not have a full faced helmet, he did not have a head and neck restraint and there weren't soft walls. There was some additional issues with his seatbelts both as to how installed and being out of date and worn that also contributed. It was a lot of freak circumstances that went into him dieing...
2007-07-24 13:48:27 · answer #6 · answered by jefflawdog 3 · 10⤊ 0⤋
Jeff pretty much nailed it with one exception.The H.A.N.S device was available to him ,but was not mandated safety equipment.Some racers used it and others did not.Don't know if it would have made any difference,but it is now a mandated piece of safety equipment.
Actually he was going for a 1,2,3 finish as he owned both cars in front of him Michael waltrip and Dale JR. both raced for him at D.E.I..
2007-07-24 14:06:29 · answer #7 · answered by charlie p 4 · 6⤊ 0⤋
Because we didn't have the safer barrier back then, we didn't have the neck guards or wrap around the head seats and when he wrecked, his neck snapped and his brain bounced off his skull a couple times and he died.
2007-07-25 00:18:01 · answer #8 · answered by cidi73 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi Charlie, glad to see you.
You, Jefflaw and Korey got it all wraped up, I think. Not much to add, except he died doing what he was passionate about his entire life, at the race where he chased a win for 20 years. This time, it was his time. He chose not to use the new safety gear, so you could say he did it his way. May he R.I.P.
Go Jr.>>>>
2007-07-24 14:50:08 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
well, they said the sudden impact of the #36 car turning him into the wall killed him, he broke his neck and a piece of metal went threw his head and he died, dale wore the open-faced helmet and he was unfortunately the deciding factor for the hans-device to be implemented now forever.
2007-07-24 21:51:18 · answer #10 · answered by Fortress of Ice 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋