"The Day"

[LMITOUT]

Ten years ago on February 18th Dale Earnhardt raced his last race. "The Day" on Speed recounts that day and, well, not much more to say...

Watch it if you can.

[gregg52]

was a good show i thought

some new interviews few interesting things i hadnt heard before

[harvey lee]

Yes it was a good show. What it did do was bring back many bad memories.

Sad day for all in racing.

[Sifty]

I saw it as well.

I thought Waltrip said it the best.

What was the greatest day for me was the darkest day for NASCAR.

Sifty

[HOF#13]

Good show. For those guys the emotion was as raw 10 years later as it was then. Sadly, it took Dale's death to really kick NASCAR into gear on the safety issue. I think about some of the wrecks that have occured since February 2001, and firmly believe that Dale's death has saved quite a few lives.

[Johnsonator]

That show put a whole new perspective on what happened that day. It is too bad it took the death of Dale to get safety where it is today. Seeing how much safer the sport got since 2001 it is amazing there were not more fatalities than there was in those days.

[Juneau4]

The sad part is that it took the death of a prominent driver to get them to make the changes. Lesser knowns had died and been seriously injured prior to Dales death and very little was changed for safety sake. He may be alive today if changes had been made.

[LMITOUT]

It was prophetic when Childress said that Earnhardt came over the radio during the red flag when there was that nasty crash at lap 170-ish and said if they don't fix these cars someone is going to die.

What I always remember about that day is at the beginning of the race Earnhardt says into the camera that something special is going to happen today. That moment burned into my memory for whatever reason, and some three hours later unfortunately it did happen. I never saw that clip again until this show the other night but always remembered him in the lawn chair by his motor home when he said it.

[harvey lee]

I might guess Dale was hoping for Jr or Waltrip to win the race. Sad part is, Dale was in third and blocked others so those 2 could finish 1 an 2.

[LMITOUT]

I might guess Dale was hoping for Jr or Waltrip to win the race. Sad part is, Dale was in third and blocked others so those 2 could finish 1 an 2.

They had an interview with Dale Jr. on ESPN tonight and he firmly believes that Sr was not blocking for he and Waltrip, but rather protecting his own position. More or less saying that Sr wouldn't give anything to anybody, including his son and company driver (Waltrip), and that Sr was racing for the win just like everyone else. Open to interpretation I suppose, but that's how Jr. sees that last lap.

[harvey lee]

I guess we will never know.

On the flip side larry M and Darly Waltrip said in an interview that they never saw Dale block like he did for that race and they believed it was for the other two.

All we do know is that it was a terrible day for racing.

[HOF#13]

It was prophetic when Childress said that Earnhardt came over the radio during the red flag when there was that nasty crash at lap 170-ish and said if they don't fix these cars someone is going to die.

What I always remember about that day is at the beginning of the race Earnhardt says into the camera that something special is going to happen today. That moment burned into my memory for whatever reason, and some three hours later unfortunately it did happen. I never saw that clip again until this show the other night but always remembered him in the lawn chair by his motor home when he said it.

Same here. I distinctly remember that brief interview he did from his lawn chair outside his motorhome. That was the first time I had seen it since 2001 also. Gave me chills.

I feel very bad for Ken Schrader. Just a good 'ol boy who went to check on his friend after the wreck. You can tell that he is clearly haunted by what he saw in that car.

[gregg52]

ya that is probably something he sees most nights going to sleep

i would think...maybe it goes away i dont know

but as much as dale's name comes up i'm sure its tuff to get outa your head