Ryan Blaney never saw it coming. Holding the lead on the final lap of Stage 2 in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, the No. 12 got a tap on the right rear from Ty Gibbs, which immediately sent the Team Penske car shooting up the track for a violent impact into the SAFER Barrier on the outside wall.
Those watching in the stands and on television at home all saw the same thing, and for many, it immediately evoked memories of that horrible day 22 years earlier.
February 18, 2001, will be remembered as one of the most shocking moments in all of sports when Dale Earnhardt made a final lap around the 2.5-mile superspeedway during the Daytona 500 and had a front-row seat to a duel between his son, Dale Jr., and his driver, Michael Waltrip. Tragically, The Intimidator never saw the ending.
Instead, his No. 3 car made contact with Sterling Marlin and wobbled to the left, before making a hard right turn up the banked track, hitting Ken Schrader, and then violently slamming into the outside wall. Earnhardt died instantly.
That moment forever changed the sport. NASCAR has since introduced numerous new safety improvements through the years, including modifications to the driver equipment (HANS device), the tracks (SAFER Barrier) and the cars. There haven’t been any deaths since Earnhardt.