When Dale Earnhardt tragically passed away following his shunt in the #3 RCR at the 2001 Daytona 500, many questions were raised by the community about how a crash that seemed relatively survivable ended the life of one of NASCAR’s most invincible drivers. The ultimate cause? A series of safety shortsightedness and equipment failures led to the sport losing one of its winningest and most beloved drivers. Back then, the safety of a driver was left to themselves, which led to many racers such as Earnhardt opting to not use some vital safety gear that could have saved his life on that fateful day.

It’s no secret that the introduction of the HANS device has saved the lives of several prominent racers from all categories like Jeff Gordon from America’s beloved motorsport as well as Romain Grosjean from Formula 1. But after carefully analyzing the horrific details of that Earnhardt shunt, the Reddit community engaged in a respectful yet controversial debate about the prospects of his survival had he been wearing a HANS device during the Daytona 500.

Could the HANS device have saved Dale Earnhardt’s life?

To get a better idea of all the variables that were at play, let’s take a rather painful trip down memory lane to February 18, 2001. Dale Earnhardt was about to have a brilliant finish to the Daytona 500, following two of his team’s cars – the #8 driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr and the #15 driven by Michael Waltrip. The pair would continue to swap positions for the lead until the end of the race while Earnhardt delivered a defensive masterclass to keep Sterling Marlin at Bay. Unfortunately for the #3 Monte Carlo, Marlin would end up clipping the rear at an angle that sent Earnhardt into a slide toward Ken Schrader and the outside wall.

At speeds close to 150 miles an hour, Earnhardt struck the wall at a critical angle and came down to a stop next to Schrader on the grass. When he ran over to Earnhardt’s side to assist him, the look on Schrader’s face revealed a harrowing reality that would soon unfold in front of the NASCAR community. While Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr crossed the line to seal a 1-2, the Intimidator was transported to Halifax Medical Center where he would be declared dead upon arrival at 5:16 pm EST.

NASCAR’s official report concluded that Dale Earnhardt’s unfortunate death was due to a combination of factors. Starting from his shunt with Ken Schrader and the speed and angle of that impact along with the seat belt also being a contributing factor. However, the investigation did not clarify if the HANS device would have saved Earnhardt’s life, resulting in mixed opinions from both drivers and the crowds over the device’s utility in the future.

Notable names such as Mark Martin would outright denounce the HANS device before even giving it a shot. Martin was quoted by —— as sharing, “I would not wear one for anything. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and take my chances.” Martin added, “It’s just not for me I’m not even going to tinker with it.” Other legends such as Jeff Gordon would resist it initially but would implement it soon after, ultimately saving his life a few years later.

After Gordon suffered a horrific crash at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2008, the opinion of a majority of the NASCAR community was swayed toward the use of the device after seeing the icon relatively unscathed. He would also share, “I know for a fact that the HANS device saved my life that day. Because everything else in my body moved and stretched and was so incredibly sore the days following that I don’t think my head with the helmet on it that I could have survived that without holding it back with the HANS.”

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While the device is certainly approved by Jeff Gordon and many others such as Kurt Busch, the NASCAR community is still struggling to agree on whether the hand and neck support device would have truly saved the Intimidator’s life.

The NASCAR community are still scratching their heads about the cause behind Earnhardt’s unusual death

In a Reddit post regarding an article from 2011, a user asked the NASCAR community whether they recalled the percentage of survival for Earnhardt had he been wearing the neck support in Daytona. This prompted many fans to reply with figures ranging from 90 to 95 percent. A user added a prime example to support this claim, “When David Reutimann slammed the wall at Texas head on 200mph and got out and was like wow that was a hit instead of dying you know the HANS and all other safety features that NASCAR implemented worked. He should have been dead.”

However, Earnhardt’s death wasn’t just due to one cause. Taking into account NASCAR’s official report, fans pointed out, “But all the wrecks since Dale has been with much better seating and belt systems that limit body and torso movement. Not to mention that all of Dale’s belts were installed incorrectly. So there isn’t a good basis to say if a Hans alone would have helped.” The debate continued, with many fans split over the importance of the HANS device in such an incident. Another user also commented on Earnhardt’s other injuries, “I feel like he would have survived with HANS, but he would have been critically injured and probably would have never raced again.”

Even if Earnhardt were using the HANS device, the improper seat belt positioning coupled with the open-face helmet meant there were still a lot of factors that could have resulted in catastrophe. Another user turned away from the HANS device to focus on the seatbelt failure, which had later been debunked as a possible cause for Earnhardt’s fatal injuries by Dr Barry Myers, a crash injuries expert from Duke University.

The user shared, “From what I understand, it had more to do with improper mounting and placement of his seat belts. NASCAR tried to blame Simpson, but they had documented that they were installed incorrectly, and Earnhardt liked them that way for comfort. A full-face helmet and HANS might have made the hit survivable. He had neither.”

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While the NASCAR Reddit community was split in their opinion on whether Earnhardt’s death could have been prevented just by the use of a HANS device, the number of additional factors was just too high not to consider other possibilities. But do you think Dale Earnhardt would have been alive today if the HANS device was mandatory back then?