The big wreck before that was classis superspeedway restrictor plate crashing. This was such a great race today.........The other mods that have freed up the engines and lessened the effect of the plates have indeed made things so much more exciting. Earnhardt's accident was one of those innocuous looking crashes, but they are the ones that do the most damage.

What this will do to NASCAR at this point in time is simply too hard to grasp. Tragic as the losses last year were, things happen to younger drivers and to men of lesser talent. Earnhardt was the most influential driver in NASCAR in the past 20 years. He was possibly the greatest stocker driver of any time. This is like the loss of Jimmy Clark, Mark Donahue, Ayrton Senna........all bigger than life, all seemingly invincible, and all now gone.

It's easy for people to say what they will about racing accidents and racers and fans. I know some cannot understand why dying in a dangerous sport can make some of us feel so bad. But it's about skill, about ability, about the work it takes to do something at a level far beyond what the rest of us can even relate to. Yeah, things happen in racing, its dangerous. real fans and real racers don't remember as many crashes as we do great performances. If you saw Jackie Stewart drive in Can-Am, where you could see into the cockpit so well, its easier to understand. I watched him at the Glen many years ago and I could have put a one inch stripe on the tread of his front tires and placed two dimes on the track in #7 and he'd have hit them EVERY TIME. That was what Earnhardt was to stock cars. Hard to believe..........

Spaw