Dale Earnhardt’s Death Didn’t Make HANS Compulsory; It was His Son’s Role in Fatal Crash That Forced NASCAR As Tony Stewart Resisted

Among the legends of NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt made his place. The American driver is always amongst the first names when speaking of the GOATs of the sport. Sadly, his story did not have a fairytale ending.

With 97 victories, Earnhardt is tied with Darrell Waltrip at the 6th spot for the most wins in NASCAR national series combined. Moreover, between 1980 and 1994, the driver from Kannapolis, North Carolina won 7 NASCAR Cup Series Championships, a feat that only 2 other people in the sport have, Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson.

Unfortunately, he died in a tragic accident while racing in the Daytona 500 in Florida in 2001. What makes it worse is his death was avoidable; the crash wasn’t in his hands, but the precaution was.

NASCAR had the HANS device in its armory. Earnhardt, however, refused to wear it. Following his death, NASCAR began to push the use of the HANS device without making it a mandatory requirement.

Tony Stewart, one of the last drivers to race without the HANS said, “It’s not that I don’t want to wear it, and I’m not being bull-headed about this, but there is nothing right now that I’m comfortable wearing inside the race car.”

Regrettably, that wasn’t a good decision. Some elements of the incident were very uncanny. 

Kerry Earnhardt, one of Dale’s four children, was involved in an accident with Blaise Alexander while racing at the ARCA. Both cars crashed viciously, but one had worse luck than the other.

Kerry came out of his car uninjured, while Blaise suffered the same fate as Earnhardt – death due to a basilar skull fracture. 

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Consequently, NASCAR’s hand was forced. It made HANS devices mandatory for drivers. A good decision, but a few years late.

Is NASCAR making the Dale Earnhardt mistake again?

Safety issues with NASCAR have been in the news quite a lot recently. Earlier it was the HANS device. Now the issue lies in cars catching fire.

Kevin Harvick’s chassis caught fire without any contact with a car or the walls at the Darlington Speedway.

Harvick said angrily, “Safety cannot be about money. I’ve lived this, man. I watched when we had all the struggle with Adam [Petty] and Kenny Irwin and it resulted in Dale Earnhardt’s [death at Daytona]. And then all of a sudden, it was mandatory to wear the HANS device or it was mandatory to wear the Hutchens device.”

“We developed soft walls (SAFER barriers). It can’t be slow. Safety cannot be slow. This car is screwed up as far as the way that it crashes. Whether the data says it or not, every driver in this garage will tell you it’s not right and it hurts.”

“NASCAR has been slow to react and the teams are always worried about money and that doesn’t do anything for the drivers,” said Kevin.

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With Alex Bowman joining Kurt Busch with concussion-like symptoms, NASCAR will have to be more decisive and proactive.