Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr 20 Years Later

It’s been 20 years since Dale Earnhardt Sr. passed away following a fatal crash in the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, and yet there still remains an emptiness in the hearts of NASCAR fans. Highly regarded as one of the greatest drivers all-time, Earnhardt was also the most popular driver in his era. He was posthumously awarded the Most Popular Driver of the Year in 2001.

Dale Sr. began racing full-time in 1979 and won the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year. During his illustrious career, Earnhardt completed a total of 676 races with 76 wins, 428 top-ten finishes, and 22 poles in the NASCAR Cup Series, and 136 races with 21 wins, 75 top-ten finishes, and seven poles in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and put together several signature wins. Those wins include one Daytona 500 in 1998, the Brickyard 400 in 1995, three Coca-Cola 600s in 1986, 1992, and 1993, and four Winston 500s (now the Geico 500) in 1990, 1994, 1999, and 2000. He would also finish his career with 7 NASCAR Cup Series Championships.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame (2002), International Motorsports Hall of Fame (2006), and is a member of the Inaugural Class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame (2010).

Earnhardt’s tragic death remains one of the darkest moments in NASCAR history, but it caused NASCAR to make driver safety the number one priority. There hasn’t been a fatality in NASCAR in the 20 years since Earnhardt’s death.

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