Earnhardt lived up to tough reputation

ThatsRacin.com Opinion

Saturday, Aug. 01, 2009

How actually tough was Dale Earnhardt?

Most notably in memory for many of those who followed his career closely are these two examples:

-- The time he flipped wildly down the backstretch during the Daytona 500 of 1997 at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. An emergency crew got to his car quickly and hustled Earnhardt into an ambulance. Dale, shaken but not hurt, happened to glance out a window and saw that his race car had come to rest upright and on its wheels. "Let me out of here," he demanded. "I want to see if the engine in that thing will crank." It did, and Earnhardt continued in the race, much to the delight and loud cheering of fans.

-- The 1996 crash at Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway during which he again flipped, skidded several hundred yards on the car's roof and then was struck hard by three other vehicles. This wreck did leave Dale with several injuries, including a badly broken left shoulder. Nevertheless, he qualified the next week for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, but, with tears in his eyes, had to give way to a relief driver. Then, two weeks after the scary Talladega crash, he incredibly won the pole virtually one-handed on the Watkins Glen road course in New York at a track record speed.

Both episodes are indications of Earnhardt's extraordinary physical and mental toughness.

There's another that's lesser known, but just as impressive to me.

It unfolded in late July of 1982, starting at Pocono Raceway, where NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series teams are gathered this weekend for the Pennsylvania 500. And I recall it every year when this particular Pocono date rolls around.

Earnhardt and the late Tim Richmond tangled going through the triangle-shaped track's treacherous Tunnel Turn. Earnhardt flipped several times and his car almost flew from the speedway. He sustained a broken left knee.

Dale refused treatment in Pennsylvania, preferring to return home and see his family doctor in Mooresville, N.C.

At the time I had the same doctor, now retired, and a few years ago he related the tale to me.

"Dale came to my office limping and asked me to check his knee," said the doctor. "We X-rayed him, and it was maybe the worst knee injury I saw in a career of over 40 years.

"I said, 'Dale, you're going to have to undergo an operation right away. That knee is torn all to pieces. You need to go right now to see an orthopedist.'

"Dale gave me that intense look he had and replied, 'There ain't going to be no operation, at least not right away. That would keep me from running at Talladega next weekend.'

"I said, 'Man, there's no way. The slightest pressure you put on that foot is going to shoot pain up your leg to the knee. It will be excruciating.

"'You won't be able to touch the brake or clutch pedals.'

"Dale said, 'There ain't gonna be no touching the brake pedal.'

"He got himself outfitted with a brace and got a crutch, and off to Talladega he went."

Earnhardt kept secret from NASCAR the seriousness of his injury out of fear that officials wouldn't let him run. When not in his race car for practice or qualifying, he layed low in the garage area in a Lincoln Town Car with heavily tinted windows, hiding from NASCAR brass. He stretched out in the back seat of the car of his team owner, Bud Moore, for as much comfort as possible.

Dale qualified 18th for the Talladega 500, but was swept into a wreck and finished 35th.

On Aug. 3, he underwent surgery at a hospital in Statesville, N.C. His injury was much beyond the "hairline fracture" that Dale called it.

He had a depressed lateral tibula plateau fracture. Two screws were inserted into the knee.

"The surgeon said I'd have to be on crutches for three to six weeks ... And he also told me the injury won't impair my ability to race," Earnhardt related brightly.

And race he did during the 11 events remaining on the 1982 schedule, not winning again but doing well enough to finish eighth in the Winston Cup Series point standings.

Earnhardt was destined to eventually top the series' points races seven times, tying the once-thought-unapproachable record of Richard Petty.

On Feb. 18, 2001 Earnhardt was involved in a last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 that even he couldn't survive. He lost his life at age 49.

His memory and the legend of his toughness will live on as long as automobiles are run in races.

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