Tony Stewart Recalls Finding Out Dale Earnhardt Had Been In Tragic Daytona 500 Wreck After He Was Mistakenly Put In The Same Hospital Room

One of the most awful days in NASCAR history.

On February 18, 2001, Dale Earnhardt tragically lost his life during the Daytona 500, and the sport has never, ever been the same.

But he wasn’t the only one who wrecked during that race. On lap 173, a very dramatic wreck caused the No. 20 car – driven by Tony Stewart – to go airborne, flipping and landing on top of another vehicle. That wreck spawned an unsettling comment from the driver of the No. 3 car. Earnhardt’s team owner, Richard Childress, recalls talking to his driver on the radio during the red flag, and Dale Sr. eerily saying this:

“Richard, if they don’t do something to these cars, it’s going to end up killing somebody.”

Unfortunately we know how the story ends just 20 laps later, but Earnhardt’s death was the catalyst for NASCAR to make sweeping safety improvements over the next few years. They immediately began mandating the use of HANS Devices, a head and neck restraint that protects drivers heads from sudden movements in the event of a crash. And SAFER barriers were installed at all NASCAR tracks to help absorb the force of the cars hitting the wall.

And last year, Stewart opened up about that horrific day to Dan Patrick, and he was asked what he remembered about his own crash where he flipped multiple times:

He was mostly worried about the car being damaged, and Stewart didn’t realize how much he’d flipped or how bad it really was… he went from running third to landing on top of the driver in the 23rd spot:

“All I remember I was, we were three wide coming off of turn two. I was the car on the very bottom, I think Robby Gordon was next to me and Ward Burton was outside of him or vice versa. But whoever the outside guy was hit the wall, they came off, hit the guy next to him, that guy hit me and it turned me to the right on the wall.

And that’s the first thing I remembered after hitting the wall was the car being stopped and kind of coming to and not really knowing what’s going on. And Bobby is staring at me through the window going, ‘Are you all right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m fine’. He goes, ‘You know if we gotta cut the top off, we can cut the top off.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t, no, I don’t wanna do that. I don’t wanna hurt the car.’

He goes, ‘I don’t think you need to worry about that.’ I had no idea what had just happened and what the status was. But I said, ‘What happened?’ He goes, ‘You landed on top of me.’ I was running third, he was running 23rd and I landed on top of him. But I had no idea. He goes, ‘I’ll tell you about it later.'”

When he got to the hospital, he found out Dale Sr. had been in an accident as well… which he learned when they accidentally rolled him in the same room Dale was in. It’s something he’s never forgotten, and he instantly knew how bad it really was even though no one had given him any details:

“When they accidentally rolled me in the same room he was in. I had already been there, they had done all the scans on me and went to put me back in a room and they had already put Dale in the same room. They accidentally put me in there, and I was only in there a second, but I knew when I saw Dale it wasn’t good.”

I can’t imagine… Steward says he quickly realized his day wasn’t bad at all, even though he was lucky to have walked out of his car with just a scratch and some bruises:

“I thought I had a bad day. I realized that my bad day wasn’t a bad day at all.”

The also discussed how, on TV, the wrecks were deceiving, because Stewart’s looked so much more dramatic with the flips and how it all played out. Dale slammed the wall, but as Tony describes it, he was able to dispel energy by flipping, which oddly enough probably lessened the impact in some ways:

“After Dale‘s accident sparked a whole new revolution in driver safety in our sport. But at that time, when we didn’t have soft walls, we didn’t have head and neck restraints. and like I said, my crush looked a lot worse than his.

He went and he hit with such force and it just stopped. Mine just kept going and going and going and it dissipated the energy. I had one cut and a bunch of bruises, and his was a lot more dramatic.”

Just a horrific day, and even more so for someone who had to witness and be part of it the way Stewart was… I can’t imagine. If we can find any silver lining in how that all happened, I would echo Stewart’s sentiments about how much more driver safety became a priority (not that it wasn’t before, but you get the point), and how much NASCAR did to enhance all aspects of the cars, and tracks, becoming safer for everyone behind the wheel. There hasn’t been a fatal crash during a NASCAR event since the 2001 Daytona race.

I’ve never heard Tony talk about seeing Dale Sr. after that accident happened and the fact that he was in the hospital at the same time, though I’m sure it’s not something he really ever wants to talk about, which is completely understandable and I admire that he’s kept the details of what he saw to himself, and I’m sure the family appreciates that, as well.

You can watch that part of the interview here:

The post Tony Stewart Recalls Finding Out Dale Earnhardt Had Been In Tragic Daytona 500 Wreck After He Was Mistakenly Put In The Same Hospital Room first appeared on Whiskey Riff.