Yes. Sterling Marlin made contact with Dale Earnhardt’s car on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, triggering the sequence that killed the seven-time champion.
The Sterling Marlin Contact That Changed NASCAR Forever
The contact happened entering Turn 4 with the white flag out. Earnhardt was blocking for his two Dale Earnhardt Inc. cars running first and second, Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Marlin, running low trying to advance position, made contact with Earnhardt’s left rear bumper. The impact sent Earnhardt’s black No. 3 Chevrolet sliding left with the nose on the apron.
Earnhardt counter-steered sharply to correct the slide, which snapped the car back up the track directly into Ken Schrader’s path. Schrader’s yellow No. 36 Pontiac slammed into Earnhardt behind the passenger door, changing the angle of the car toward the outside wall. Earnhardt hit the concrete retaining wall nose-first at an estimated 155 to 160 mph. Both cars slid down the banking into the infield grass. Schrader walked away with minor injuries. Earnhardt died instantly from basilar skull fracture.
The contact was racing contact, not intentional. Marlin stated he was running as low as possible when Earnhardt got caught three-wide in traffic. Whether Rusty Wallace bumped Earnhardt loose into Marlin’s path remains debated, but the initial touch came from Marlin’s front bumper to Earnhardt’s left rear.
Sterling Marlin Still Carries The Weight
Marlin received death threats and hate mail in the days following the crash. Dale Earnhardt Jr. publicly defended Marlin, calling it a racing incident and asking fans to stop blaming him. Marlin held a press conference two days after the crash, stating he definitely didn’t do anything intentional and that everybody was racing hard for the Daytona 500 win.
The tragedy haunts Marlin still. Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed on his podcast in 2023 that Marlin, now battling Parkinson’s disease, watches the final 10 laps of that race about once a month, questioning what might have been done differently. Junior absolved Marlin of guilt during the podcast, characterizing it as a racing crash that occurs in competition, and told Marlin he hoped he carried no guilt going forward.
The facts are clear. Sterling Marlin made contact with Dale Earnhardt’s car. That contact was racing contact during the final lap of the Daytona 500, not a deliberate act. The subsequent collision with Schrader and the wall killed one of NASCAR‘s greatest drivers, changing the sport forever through mandatory safety improvements including HANS devices and SAFER barriers.
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