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Speeds in excess of 170, slight nudge ...

Sterling Marlin: "He came down, and we hit one time. He came back down again, and it turned him around.''

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2001

DAYTONA BEACH -- Tony Stewart's car slammed headfirst into the outside wall, went airborne, landed on the roof of Robby Gordon's car and flipped several times before settling on its wheels.

Stewart suffered a concussion in what became a 19-car pileup on Lap 174 during the Daytona 500 on Sunday, but he walked out of Halifax Medical Center that evening.

At speeds in excess of 170 mph, a slight nudge from behind by Sterling Marlin sent Dale Earnhardt's third-place car out of control and quickly into the Turn 4 wall on the final lap.

Earnhardt died instantly of a skull fracture that ran from the front to the back of his head. "Sterling didn't do anything wrong," said Michael Waltrip, who was in first place and won the race. "Sterling was simply racing."

Earnhardt passed Marlin nine laps from the finish and did everything possible to keep the rest of the field from encroaching on second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip, in two of the three cars owned by Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Marlin had the dominant car all day and was eager to get by Earnhardt on the low side and race for the win. The two cars touched going into the fourth turn, Marlin's right front bumper to Earnhardt's left rear bumper.

"He came down, and we hit one time," Marlin said after the race, before he knew Earnhardt had died. "He came back down again, and it turned him around. I had my lane. He's the one that came down on me."

The bump caused Earnhardt's car to turn left and go down onto the apron. Earnhardt then turned right off the apron and veered up the 31-degree banking at an angle. Before Earnhardt hit the wall with a force that caused the hood of his car to flap in the wind like a flag, Ken Schrader slammed into the right side of Earnhardt's car.

The cars slid along the wall for at least 30 yards before drifting down the banking and into the infield grass.

Rescue workers arrived moments later. Earnhardt was unresponsive. He never regained consciousness.

"When they rubbed, I'm sure Sterling didn't think Dale would wreck," Waltrip said. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have rubbed him.

"I hope that people will remember Sterling during this time, too, because they made contact. There's no denying that. But I didn't see it to be anybody's fault."

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