Sorry to drag the topic off, but Dale's death was actually the strangest moment in my life. I was sitting there watching the race when he hit the wall. My chest started hurting, my scalp felt like it was peeling off toward the floor, and I turned around without even thinking and said "He's dead." Mom told me I was silly.
I was right.
I was watching the race, saw the accident, the finish and turned off the TV. I didn't find out he died until the next day. It really didn't look like much of an accident and I didn't think anything of it at the time.
It ended up being a pretty high price to pay blocking to get his guys across the finish line 1-2.
And poor Sterling Marlin with the death threats and stuff after that for what amounted to a racing accident.
