DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - As the stock car racing world mourned the death of seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt to a basal skull injury, NASCAR officials said there would not be immediate safety changes.
"We're always investigating [safety] options," said NASCAR president Mike Helton. "We're working on it. But we don't accelerate it. We don't slow it down. It's a work in progress.
"We're smarter today than yesterday because of everything we've learned."
But in the past 10 months, NASCAR has lost four drivers in on-track accidents - Craftsman Truck driver Tony Roper at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch Grand National driver Adam Petty and Winston Cup driver Kenny Irwin in separate accidents at New Hampshire and, now, Earnhardt.
The Earnhardt crash is the most damning because it happened to the Winston Cup series' most experienced and most skilled driver. His expertise, built up over 22 years of racing, didn't help him Sunday, when he crashed at 180 mph into the fourth-turn wall on the last lap of the 43rd Daytona 500.
Yesterday, a death certificate was issued by Volusia County stating the cause of Earnhardt's death was a "blunt force injury of the head due to a motor vehicle accident."
Dr. Steve Bohannon, the Halifax Medical Center emergency room physician who was on the scene at the track and accompanied Earn- hardt's body to the hospital, said initial autopsy results revealed a basal skull fracture and basal brain injuries.
"I think it was probably the injuries to the base of the brain that caused death," he said. "Even if he had been wearing a HANS [Head And Neck Support] device and his head and neck would have been restrained, the body still has internal, floating organs - the brain, the heart, the liver. Even fully strapped into a seat and [you] hit a concrete wall, all the internal organs still move. The brain impacts on the inside of the skull."
Research has shown that basal skull injuries have been responsible for 90 percent of the deaths in all forms of motor sports over the past 20 years.
"We are not going to react for the sake of reacting," Helton said. "We will do it when we know exactly what the right thing to do is. We've made a significant investment in safety behind the scenes, but it's about results. It's not about a public relations effort."
Earnhardt was doing what he has done almost every Sunday from February through mid-November since his rookie year in 1979. He was racing for all he was worth, carving out a position for a final charge to victory.
He came into the third turn with Ken Schrader looking for room to pass on his outside rear bumper and Sterling Marlin looking for room to pass on the inside. Earnhardt was holding his line low on the track when Marlin's right front bumper nudged Earnhardt's rear left.
Earnhardt's car wiggled and spun toward the apron around the bottom of the track. He tried to correct the spin, and the car spun and shot straight up the track at about 180 mph. He hit head-on into the outside wall, taking Schrader with him.
Michael Waltrip, who drove one of three cars in the race owned by Earnhardt, won the Daytona 500. It was his first career victory in 463 races.
Yesterday, he was pale and full of sorrow.
"I was in Victory Lane, and I couldn't wait until I got that big grab on the neck, that hug from him," said Waltrip, who was unaware of the brutal nature of the accident during his celebration. "I just knew he was going to show up any minute.
"My personal belief is that in the twinkle of an eye you can be in the presence of the Lord. And that's where Dale is. Instead of celebrating with me, he's up there celebrating with my dad, and that's not a bad thing either."
Waltrip refused to blame safety issues - the lack of the HANS device, the lack of a full-face helmet or the lack of "soft" walls - for the tragedy. He also said he didn't think the HANS device should be mandatory, that it should continue to be studied and that it is and should be "the responsibility of the driver" to make where he sits in the car safe.
Earnhardt's death may not have moved NASCAR to quick action, but Dr. Robert Hubbard, one of the men who invented the HANS device, said yesterday that he'd had 50 phone calls from stock car drivers ordering the apparatus. One of them, Winston Cup driver Rusty Wallace, was a vociferous opponent just last week. Wallace is flying to Atlanta tomorrow to be fitted.
"Dale's accident was just a racing incident," Waltrip said. "Dale and Sterling, they got together and I think we should all keep Sterling Marlin in our prayers. He didn't do anything wrong. ... I don't think that wreck looked like anything but guys wanting to get to the checkered flag. ... Dale was fighting a thunderstorm back there [holding off Marlin, Schrader and others]. But he was doing what he wanted to do, and contact happens. Schrader hit the wall, too. Schrader walked away, but Dale didn't."
Marlin has not released any statement since the accident and has not responded to interview requests.
