Talladega. Not just a track, but the essence of chaos and danger. Talladega Superspeedway is everything that motorsport fears yet adores at the same time. And this same track was once able to bring the Intimidator to his knees. The steep banking and long stretches of Talladega are enough to power NASCAR cars to terrifying speeds. So what happens when a bunch of cars end up colliding into each other right at the peak of their speed, when every driver is pushing their car to the absolute limit?

The Big One

It all starts with that one driver leading the way, unaware of the danger approaching him. Dale Earnhardt was doing the same that day. It was the 1996 Die Hard 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway. At lap 117, Dale Earnhardt was leading the race on the inside line, with Ernie Irvan and Sterling Marlin right behind him, battling it out against each other.

Right at the end of the frontstretch, Marlin hit Ernie Irvan’s front bumper, and he spun. This triggered a chain reaction. Marlin went and crashed into Earnhardt who was the very first victim. Earnhardt loses control of the car, smashing it straight into the barrier. Then, one after another, cars smashed into him and completely destroyed his vehicle to the point of being unrecognizable.

All the audience could see was smoke coming out of this car. But it didn’t take an expert to realize that the wreck was dangerous. It had completely shattered.

And when Earnhardt stepped out of the car alive, people could not believe their eyes. For them, it was a miracle. But what Dale Earnhardt reveals later on certifies that it was no less than a miracle.

“From the replay, I can’t tell much. It was either Schrader or the 94. I then come to find out it was Schrader; he says, ‘I saw you, and I am aiming for you.’ But the car stopped; the smoke was rolling out in the middle of the dash because the wires were burning and because the dash was knocked down, and the car was so far because of the top collision. I switched the battery switch off. I started trying to unbuckle my helmet.

“I knew my shoulder was hurt, not my shoulder but my collarbone. And, at the same time, safety crews in NASCAR, Steve Peterson and Buster Ron, got to me. And then I told him, I said, ‘Don’t cut the top off; I think I can get out.’ So they worked with me and got me out of the car.

“And then I tried to—well, I wanted to lie down. But I couldn’t because it hurt too bad to lie. Started to lay down, and my chest hurt too bad, so I said, ‘Just walk me to the ambulance,’ and that’s why I was walking instead of laying down on the stretcher.”

When a person gets hurt, their first reflex is to lie down. They seek rest and stillness. So imagine the writhing agony that the Intimidator was facing. To bear such amounts of pain that he chose to walk instead of resting speaks volumes about the severity of the situation. In the medical diagnosis, it was revealed that Earnhardt’s sternum and shoulder were shattered.

Earnhardt also sustained a fractured left clavicle (collarbone) and sternum (breast bone). At one point, they tested to see whether he might have even bruised his heart, but luckily, those results were negative.

However, none of this was enough to stop him from coming back on top.

The Intimidator rose to glory again

At Talladega, Dale Earnhardt finds himself in the hospital, writhing in agony and broken to the point of being unable to compete. For one week, he had a relief driver in the car. And the very next week after that, he was back on track. There he was, the Intimidator, racing at Watkins Glen with a broken shoulder.

An average Joe would laugh at the idea of racing with a broken shoulder. Motorsports is all about driving the car and controlling the car at high speeds. It is already difficult to tame a NASCAR at high speeds with two hands, so how can someone do it with one hand and a broken shoulder on the other?

Well… this is the Intimidator we are talking about. There’s a reason why Dale Earnhardt has seven victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, and he proved it at Watkins Glen that day.

After a life-threatening crash at Talladega and the injuries from the same haunting him at Watkins Glen, Dale Earnhardt was able to grab the pole position. It was just another random pole position, however. Dale Earnhardt broke the lap record at Watkins Glen that day. Not only that, but he also led 54 out of the 90 laps.

Earnhardt would go on to finish the race in P6, proving once again that no crash was scary enough for him to give up.