For many a race fan, Dale Earnhardt wasn't just a NASCAR driver, he was NASCAR. To many of them, the sport just isn't the same without the "Intimidator" on the track. But the sport has moved on in the 10 years that have passed since Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
In the ensuing years, Earnhardt’s sport has undergone dramatic change. Some of the changes are a direct result of his death; others may not have happened had he lived. Either way, it’s a radically different NASCAR that takes to the track in 2011.
Here is a look at 10 major changes in NASCAR since Earnhardt, the sport’s biggest star during his time, lost his life.
1. Safer racing: As the 2001 season kicked off, a serious safety effort already was under way, in response to the racing deaths the year before of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper. But Earnhardt's death spurred a sea change on the safety front.
NASCAR officials opened a research-and-development center in Concord, N.C., and designed an all-new car, known as the Car of Tomorrow. It is built to accommodate the latest in safety features, including impact-absorbing crush zones and larger seats and restraints in the cockpit.
Every track on the circuit now has steel-and-foam SAFER barriers to absorb energy in a crash, and catch fences have been beefed up at most tracks.
2. Rules changes: Through Earnhardt's time and for three years afterward, NASCAR stuck by its long-time policy of deciding its champion through a season-long points formula. But beginning in 2004, NASCAR switched to a 10-race, season-ending "Chase" format with the top 10 -- and later 12 -- drivers in the standings racing for the championship with their points reset for the Chase races.
NASCAR also enacted rules that keep the field tighter in races throughout the season. The “free pass” or “lucky dog” rule, adopted in 2003, allows the first driver not on the lead lap to gain a lap when the caution flag flies. A “wave-around” rule was implemented in 2009, allowing drivers who wind up in front of the leader just before a restart to be “waved around” and start at the end of the lead-lap drivers.
Both rules have kept more drivers in contention for longer periods of time in races, but some fans complain that the rules make it too easy for drivers to keep up.
A new points system this year replaces the one used in Earnhardt’s time. It’s based on one point per finishing position, whereas the Earnhardt-era formula had a graduated scale, which didn’t penalize drivers as much for dropping out of races early.
3. The Sprint Cup schedule: In 2000, Earnhardt's last year on the circuit, his home state of North Carolina hosted four points-paying races, two at Charlotte and two at Rockingham. There also were two each in the neighboring states of South Carolina and Georgia.
Last year, Atlanta lost its spring date to Kentucky Speedway, but its remaining race now occupies the Labor Day weekend slot.
In 2001, after Earnhardt’s death, the Cup series began racing at two new tracks, at Kansas City and Chicago.
4. New faces dominate races: At the time Earnhardt died, Jimmie Johnson was a middle-of-the-pack driver in the Busch Series, now the Nationwide Series. He hadn't even won a race on the No. 2 circuit. He made his Cup debut at Charlotte the October after Earnhardt died. He crashed and finished 39th.
He enters 2011 having won five consecutive championships. Along the way he also has two runner-up points finishes, and two fifth-place efforts.
While Johnson has proved to be the dominating driver when it comes to points races -- and winning races in general -- Kyle Busch has emerged as the driver most likely to use his front bumper, a reputation Earnhardt once held.
And like Earnhardt, Busch likes to compete in more than one NASCAR division. At the end of 2010, Busch, age 25, already had 86 major NASCAR victories. He has 19 in Cup, 43 in Nationwide and 24 in the Camping World Truck Series.
5. A foreign manufacturer in NASCAR: Up through Earnhardt's time, the cars on NASCAR's race tracks were, except in rare instances, made in America by Detroit-based companies. But that all changed in 2004 when Toyota entered the circuit now known as the Camping World Truck Series. By 2007, Toyota Camrys were racing in the Cup Series. On March 9, 2008, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch delivered Toyota its first Cup win.
Last year, Toyota drivers won 44 major NASCAR races -- 12 in Cup, 17 in the Nationwide Series and 15 in the Camping World Truck Series. Joe Gibbs Racing has been the most successful Toyota team. Gibbs drivers have won a total of 98 races, including some while driving for other Toyota teams, since the team switched to Toyota in 2008.
6. Open-wheel invasion: For most of NASCAR's history its drivers cut their teeth on the short oval tracks scattered across the country. But in the past 10 years, the short trackers are taking a back seat to open-wheel veterans when it comes to landing prime rides in NASCAR.
The open-wheel driver who has had the most success in Juan Pablo Montoya, but he has yet to win on one of the oval tracks that dominate the Cup schedule. He does have two Cup victories and one in Nationwide, but all three came on road courses.
7. Leadership changes at the top: During Earnhardt's time, NASCAR was run by Bill France Jr., a hands-on leader who maintained close ties with Earnhardt and other top drivers. But in 2003, France turned over the reins of NASCAR to his son, Brian France, who is not in the garage at every race like his father and grandfather were. Instead he maintains a more traditional corporate schedule.
In Brian France’s time at the top, NASCAR has created a diversity program, focused on global marketing and instituted major on-track changes, including the change from a season-long points formula to decide the Sprint Cup champion to a 10-race, season-ending Chase format.
Bill France Jr. died in 2007 after a lengthy illness.
8. New title sponsors: Since the company joined the NASCAR bandwagon in 1971, R.J. Reynolds tobacco company and its Winston brand helped transform NASCAR from a mostly Southern pastime to a national sport.
Winston had money to spend, and NASCAR and its fans and drivers were the beneficiaries. But as government limits on tobacco advertising closed off many avenues for R.J. Reynolds, the company decided to drop its sponsorship of NASCAR’s elite division.
NASCAR’s second- and third-tier series also have seen changes in title sponsors since Earnhardt’s day. The Busch Series has become the Nationwide Series, and the Craftsman Truck Series is now the Camping World Series.
9. A new Hall of Fame: Ten years ago, NASCAR's stars of the past were honored at two places, the Stock Car Hall of Fame at Darlington and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega. But NASCAR officials decided an official Hall of Fame was warranted. Cities across the country were invited to submit bids, and when the selection process was done, Charlotte got the nod.
The $195 million facility opened in 2010, and Earnhardt was among the five inaugural inductees.
Attendance has been less than organizers predicted, and spending cuts have been made to help balance the Hall’s books.
10. Humpy Wheeler forced out at Charlotte: A good case can be made that if not for Humpy Wheeler, the long-time president of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Earnhardt might have spent his entire racing career running short tracks around the South.
But Wheeler saw something in Earnhardt that others missed and began getting him in front of Cup car owners, even arranging for him to run in Cup races at Charlotte.
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