2001 Daytona 500 Last Lap & Post Race

Last lap of race & post race coverage live coverage. There are lots of posts of this race here, but they always seem to be cut up or they have some kind of "poignant" music covering up the audio, so having my own tape of the whole race, I decided we needed an unedited version as it was live on TV at the time it happened w. the original audio the victory lane & the commentary before everyone knew how serious the whole deal was. The only things I cut out were the commercials & the tag at the end closing the broadcast and some brief stuff (part of the field rundown) to keep this under 10 minutes. There is an interesting roof-top (NOT in-car) camera shot of the crash from Earnhardt's car that I didn't even remember and hadn't seen since (I hadn't looked at this tape since it happened).

As I remember watching this live, after the interview w. Ken Schrader, I said "he's dead" and didn't turn the TV off after Fox went off the air, but switched over to ESPN and waited for the inevitable announcement. I wasn't myself an Earnhardt fan. I rooted for Ward Burton, who had a strong car that day and looked like a threat, but was caught up in the big wreck earlier in the race. That he wasn't a fluke was proved when he won the next year. But even though Earnhardt wasn't my favorite driver, and sometimes didn't like what he did on the track (mainly wrecking Terry Labonte at Bristol & stealing that race, after which I hated him for a while) he seemed to be a good guy off the track and this was a sad day in racing.

Also interesting to note is that Fox "missed" the finish of the race, having the camera on DW when Michael's car crossed the finish line. This was an incredible bonehead move, but something that seems to be a plague in dramatic races on TV. It happened in the 1992 Indy 500, the closest finish in that race's history, when the director went to a shot from above the flag stand and, as the cars went over the finish line nose to nose, they were covered by the checkered flag waving and no one on TV saw who won! LOL! A lesson to TV directors of close & dramatic races. Keep the camera on the race track, not on relatives in the booth, on wives in the pits or the guy waving the checkered flag.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Dale
• Earnhardt
• Sr.
• Final
• Race
• Fatal
• Crash
• 2001
• Daytona
• 500
• Ken
• Schrader
• Michael
• Waltrip
• NASCAR
• Winston
• Cup

[tonip420]

7:18 look in the sky.....

[A7xFoREVer228]

Schrader knew....

[tenerbri13]

It's a damn shame to see how happy Waltrip is just to see him crushed.

[jlthrift]

If Jr. won the race his dad died... you finish this one.

[Nascarking24]

Every year (for reasons only God knows) I watch this just hoping that it turns out differently but it never does. Schrader knew what had actually happened but I think he was thinking this wasn't real and was trying to make it not real.

[kyledavistv]

where was this race at?

[scribesunlimited]

Ken's just stunned. Sure, he probably looked in, saw Dale unconscious, his skull smashed in and bleeding and vomited. That's why he keeps licking his lips, to get the taste out.

[hubfootball17]

just to imagine how much dale and dw really hated each other back in the day and for him to still be so worried about dale and everything just really shows you why nascar has the best people, they really care about each other no matter what... kudos dw

[juboy9748]

I didn't watch this for Earnhardt. I watched this because DW's reaction to Michael winning the race is amazing. That sums up brotherly love right there.

[z71pack]

11 years later. This was a race for the ages until about 35 laps to go. Darrell's emotions sum it up great, sad, amazed just so much emotion you feel numb.

[Montoya42Go]

Anybody notice starting at 2:11, Mike Skinner's car is parked next to the accident scene.

[transam0141]

schrader knew you could tell