Marty Smith: Dale Earnhardt death

23 years have passed by and it’s still a moment racing fans never forget.

As silly as the seems, Dale Earnhardt dying on the last lap of the Daytona 500 was the most significant event of my life. I was in a group on the internet that chatted about NASCAR and that is where I met the woman of my dreams who has been my wife for 22 years. We have an amazing 19 year old daughter together. This amazing woman reached out to me to check on me because I was a huge Dale Earnhardt fan. That was the beginning of our amazing life together that would not have happened without this tragic event.

I grew up 33 miles away from RCR and I was in denial for 10 years. The Dale Jr Podcast was therapy and a road to recovery for understanding it all.

Marty is a pretty damn good storyteller Great Clip from y’all

When the telecast went to a commercial just after the finish you could see, in a long shot, they were peeling the roof off the car which meant he was unconscious. A few minutes later, on another channel, they showed the replay of Ken Schrader looking in Dale's car then waving his arms yelling "hurry! hurry! hurry!" at the ambulance. I knew it was really bad right then.

Any Nascar fan remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when they got the news of Earnhardt's death. I for instance, was at a gas station in Baker, California coming home from a camping trip in the sand dunes when the worker at the station told me because I was wearing an Earnhardt shirt. That was the longest 3+ hour drive home and I don't think I said more than 10 words to my wife the whole time. Long live Sr.

I was 15 that February and I was in complete shock and then immediately thought about Michael Waltrip, having watched a lot of old races from the 80’s on VHS and seeing how good he was and especially loved the 30 Pennzoil Pontiac, to have his first win come under those circumstances broke my heart. As a teenager I seriously didn’t know how Michael or Dale Jr. made it through all that. Then I lost the Man that had raised me since I was 4 and who was essentially my father and a huge Dale Sr. fan, two years later and found out the hard way.

I worked at I55 Raceway for Ken Schrader back when this happened. I was told second hand that Kenny said to his friends when he got to Dale's car he saw there was "blood everywhere" and that put him in panic mode. You can tell when they interviewed Kenny shortly after the accident he knew there was a slim chance Dale would survive.

Like Kobe in 2020, Earnhardts untimely death led to one of the worst years ever. Went to the race at ACS a few weeks after Daytona and it would have been Dale's 50th birthday. Great race day but everyone in the crowd was definitely going through some stuff.

Lifelong race fan who had seen a lot in racing. I knew from Schrader’s face he had seen something through that window that had messed him up.

I was sitting in the Oldfield seating area that afternoon we went from cheering to watching the accident unfold, there was a very loud boom when Dale hit the wall. We knew immediately it was bad. Dale was strict about not cutting his car. When they brought the jaws of life out and cut the car we knew it was not going to be a good evening. Then the tarp was placed over the car. The announcement was not official but internally knew he was in serious trouble. A day I will never forget and it was our 10 year old sons first Nascar race we listened to Dale on the scanner the entire race , watched him flip off Kurt Busch going down the front strecht. I will never forget that day or the events of that day!

Great interview, Marty you are too hard on yourself I still remember your reporting on this that night and you spoke from the heart!! You were unfiltered and it was a really memorable moment that I really appreciate your work!!

I'll never forget that day and then the next day I had to help my dad change a water pump out of an old Chrysler new yorker. I remember being just in dismay that Dale could die, and then the next day the world goes on and we had to do something so trivial like removing a water pump. I ended up ruining my clothes that day, covered in rusty radiator fluid. RIP Dale

Worst day in my life when Dale Earnhardt passed away I never met him but he was and still my friend and he made it be ok to never give up on things and work really hard

There was a camera on the turn 4 wall, that footage showed just how violent the crash was. That footage disappeared a few days after it was announced Dale had passed.

OMG I’ve never heard Marty tell his story… this was healing

23 years later, goosebumps, I had a love hate relationship with Sr. but I openly sobbed when he died

I was 9 years old watching on my living room tv. Racing was never the same after that day

It’s honestly kind of chilling hearing all of these new stories and perspectives from the day it almost seems like they knew from the get-go that Dale was not OK but it took a while for everyone else to find out

Thanks for sharing.