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

[acenace24]

ESPN wouldnt have noticed the Earnhardt crash until about 3 years after the race ended...

[zachmiles2]

DW's commentary in this is one of the greatest moments in racing. Gives me chills every time.

[lamarbradley256]

You could see the look on DW's face during the interview, that something wasn't right

[retroguy1976]

saw his brother win and his buddy dying I dunno how anyone could deal with 2 types of emotions in a minute.

[uhugvjkbkjh]

"I hope Dale is ok" 

[kidiscarcraZy]

a firework i think

[SPEEDSTER7201]

this wouldve been the best season of NASCAR

[Jayson Hubbard]

What is that at 3:42

[EricDavidFloyd]

The day Dale and DEI died :(

[Joe Batson]

Back when NASCAR wasn't rigged.

[Chris Molyneaux]

And when they do, they'll be extremely dull about it.

"Oh and a crash in turn 4."

[gofbero]

All I can say is thank God they didn't show Dale Sr. in an onboard camera during the crash like they do nowadays with a lot of the drivers