Dale Earnhardt dies in Daytona 500 accident

Earnhardt was involved in a final lap battle for third with Sterling Marlin's Dodge and Ken Schrader's Pontiac. The 49-year-old's Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet appeared to be clipped from behind exiting Turn Three and slewed down the track, hitting Marlin and ricocheting back up the banking. The car hit the outer retaining wall and was hit in the front passenger side by Schrader, before coming to rest in the infield.

"I guess someone got into Dale," said Schrader, "because Dale got into me and then we went up. I hit pretty hard and Dale hit harder. All of a sudden we were all crashing."

Earnhardt, the 1998 '500' winner, was treated at the scene before being transferred to Daytona Beach's Halifax Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead after unsuccessful attempts at resucitation.

Dr Steve Bohannon, the emergency physician who supervised the removal and attempted resucitation of Earnhardt, said: "When I arrived at the scene, a number of fire-fighters had already started to cut off the roof. We immediately identified the seriousness of the situation and removed him from the car and transferred him to the Halifax Medical Centre.

"At Halifax, we had a full trauma team and did everything we could for him, but at the time of the impact, my thoughts were that he had life-ending injuries.

"My initial speculation is that Dale Earnhardt died from head injuries to the base of the skull. I believe he was unconscious, was not breathing and had no pulse from the moment of impact. He did not recover consciousness at any point during our resuscitation attempts."

Bohannon added that he did not believe Earnhardt's injuries would have been less severe with a full-face helmet, instead of his trademark open-face one.

The 2001 running of the Daytona 500 was the first to use the new superspeedway aero package NASCAR had introduced to pep up its increasingly processional restrictor plate races at Talladega and Daytona's 2.5-mile tri-oval. The package, which uses roof strips and a larger rear spoiler to increase drag and aid overtaking, had been used successfully at last autumn's Talladega race and in the non-points Bud Shootout and 125-mile qualifying races at Daytona without incident. But several drivers had questioned if the new rules made the racing too close. In Sunday's '500', an 18-car shunt earlier in the race had resulted in no serious injuries. Earnhardt was running third in a multi-car draft at the time of his accident.

Speaking before it was confirmed that Earnhardt's injuries were fatal, 1989 Winston Cup Champion Rusty Wallace said: "I know these knew rules were brought in for the fans, and they probably had a whale of race, but is this really the type of racing we want? We've got to let NASCAR decide."

Bill France Jr, who recently stepped down as NASCAR president due to illness, said: "Today NASCAR lost its greatest driver in the history of the sport. I lost a dear friend."

His successor Mike Helton said: "Our prayers are with Dale's wife Teresa, his children, his team-owner Richard Childress and with Dale Earnhardt Inc."

Earnhardt, known as 'The Intimidator' due to his crowd-pleasing aggressive style, made his Winston Cup debut in 1975. After several seasons of sporadic starts, he was Rookie of the Year in 1979 and took the first of his seven titles in 1980. More titles followed in 1986-87, 1990-91 and 1993-94. His 76 career victories put him sixth overall in the all-time Winston Cup standings.

After a lean period by his own standards from 1996 to 1999, Earnhardt had finished runner-up in the 2000 standings and was tipped as a genuine title-contender for 2001.

Tony Stewart, who suffered concussion after barrel-rolling and triggering an 18-car accident in the Daytona 500, will be released from the Halifax Medical Centre after a CT Scan revealed no further injuries.