Re: A sad day in NASCAR

From: steve preston (steve239dak@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Feb 18 2001 - 19:55:12 EST


I thought it looked like the ambulance was driving
awfully slow to be going to the hospital.Looked like
it was doing 45mph.
--- Thumper <thumper72@lvcm.com> wrote:
> From MSNBC.com:
>
> EARNHARDT, CONSIDERED THE greatest star of his
> era and the biggest fan
> attraction in NASCAR history, had to be cut out of
> the car, and he was
> rushed to the hospital.
>
> Earnhardt was pronounced dead from massive chest
> injuries even while his
> driver, Michael Waltrip, was being interviewed in
> the Daytona press box
> after his first career victory in 463 starts,
> according to NASCAR.com.
>
> "My heart is hurting right now," Waltrip said
> in his postrace
> interview. "I would rather be any place right this
> moment than here.
> "I want to be with him to try to help. It's
> so painful."
> He said he learned of the accident from
> driver Ken Schrader, a close
> friend and hunting companion of Earnhardt.
> "He came to Victory Lane to give me a
> heads-up, and that's all I
> know," Waltrip said before quickly ending his
> interview. "I haven't been
> able to find out anything more than Schrader told
> me.
> "I have to go."
> The accident happened a half-mile from the
> finish of the NASCAR
> season opener when Earnhardt, running fourth, hit
> Sterling Marlin, hit the
> wall in the high-banked fourth turn and was smacked
> hard by Schrader.
> "We were three deep and he hit me," Marlin
> said. "Then he turned
> around."
> It was the second major wreck in five years
> in the race for
> Earnhardt. He flipped wildly on the backstretch near
> the end of the race in
> 1997 but was not seriously hurt. He came back to win
> the race the next year
> on his 20th try.
> Earnhardt is the leader among active Winston
> Cup drivers with 76
> career victories.
> The crash was not as spectacular as an 18-car
> wreck 25 laps earlier
> that took out 18 cars. Tony Stewart was injured in
> that accident, but the
> track said he did not have life-threatening
> injuries. Stewart had a
> concussion.
> Earnhardt was a factor in the race
> throughout, and spent the final
> laps in close proximity to his son and Waltrip,
> trying to block Marlin. The
> Dodge driver had just passed Earnhardt, who was
> trying to get back by him on
> the low side of the track when there was slight
> contact that set his
> Chevrolet spinning up the 31-degree banking.
> It turned to the right and hit the wall, and
> Schrader could not avoid
> hitting it.
> Both cars slowly began to slide down the
> banking to the bottom of the
> track as the rest of the field race by, but there
> was no further contact.
> Earnhardt Jr. quickly left the postrace
> celebration for Waltrip, and
> sprinted to the infield care center to be with his
> father. It took several
> minutes to get the elder Earnhardt out of the car,
> and he was quickly taken
> to Halifax Hospital.
> The race was the season-opening event for
> NASCAR, which had three
> driver deaths last year.
> Busch Series driver Adam Petty, the grandson
> of stock car great
> Richard Petty, was killed in May in Loudon, N.H., in
> May. Two months later,
> Winston Cup driver Kenny Irwin also was killed at
> New Hampshire
> International Speedway.
> NASCAR truck series driver Tony Roper was
> killed in October at Texas
> Motor Speedway.
>
>

=====
Steve Preston 1999 Dakota Sport 3.9V6,4x4,3.92 Anti-spin,42RE auto,Intense Blue,regular cab.



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