Marty Smith Recalls Morning of Dale Earnhardt Tragedy at Daytona 500: “There Was an Overwhelming Air”

On the day of Dale Earnhardt’s death, a young Marty Smith was an upcoming writer and reporter for NASCAR. Present in the Daytona field at the time of the accident, he witnessed the fateful wreck firsthand.

Recalling the pre-race sentiments that ran through the track on February 18, 2001, in a 2023 interview, he said, “That morning there was an overwhelming air that this was going to be a resurgent time for Dale because he’d finished second to Bobby Labonte the previous season in the points. This was the year he was going to break Richard Petty’s Championship record.”

By 2001, a frictional relationship between Earnhardt and his son, Earnhardt Jr., had mended greatly. The father-son duo’s only goal was to get one of the team’s cars to capture the Daytona 500 flag. Creating a formidable trio along with Michael Waltrip, they devised before the race that they would work together to get all three cars ahead of the grid.

Smith continued, “He was obviously very introspective you could see that on pit road he’s very affectionate to Teresa, he’s hugging Junior, they’re praying and it was just a beautiful scene.” The aura and energy that surrounded Earnhardt at that moment left a strong print on Smith’s mind.

The plan that Dale Earnhardt devised to have a DEI car win the Daytona 500

Smith wrote for ESPN in 2011 about the DEI strategy for the race, “They planned to collectively spank the field for 498 miles and then sort it out amongst themselves when the checkers were in the air. That plan materialized, as the trio ran 1-2-3 on the final lap.”

Underlining the same in his 2023 interview, he said, “It’s either going to be Junior’s first and fulfill a prophecy, or it’s going to be Michael’s and break a big streak and fulfill  Dale’s promise for what Michael was going to do. And then the wreck happens and people to this day will say Dale was blocking for those two. Only one person knows the answer.”

Smith had been a yet green face of 24 years when the wreck happened. Given the responsibility of interviewing Rusty Wallace after the final lap, he’d waited for him to come into the pitlane. And that’s where he’d been when Earnhardt hit the Turn 4 wall.

Meanwhile, 24 years have passed since NASCAR lost Earnhardt, and the countless drivers who have come up since haven’t been able to fill the hole that he left behind.