"I could shed tears": When Darrell Waltrip recalled the 'tragic' day at Daytona in 2001

During a 2012 interview, Darrell Waltrip opened up about one of the darkest days in NASCAR's history. It was the Daytona 500 of 2001 when Waltrip witnessed both extremes of the sport. On one hand, his brother, Michael Waltrip won his first ever race. But on the other, his longtime rival and friend, Dale Earnhardt Sr., suffered a serious accident on the racetrack.

Earnhardt tragically lost his life in a last lap wreck at Daytona. And with Waltrip calling the race from the booth, he saw both his brother winning the race, and his friend losing his life. Speaking about it in 2012, Darrell recalled that day as he said (via CBS):

"It's 11 years ago, and even today, I see that and I think about that moment in time, I could shed tears. It was tragic. One moment I'm excited for my brother. I'm going to victory circle with my brother. And the next minute I turn around and a friend of mine, Andy, was standing at the top of the steps with tears down his face. Big man. Deputy sheriff in Daytona. And he's shaking his head. I say, 'I'm going to Victory Circle.' He's going to take me. 'What's wrong?' He's shaking his head and crying. He said we got to go to the hospital. He said, 'I don't think Dale made it.' It was the biggest and most emotional roller coaster I had been on in my life."

Waltrip mentioned that amid the excitement of his brother winning and the reality that Earnhardt probably lost his life in that wreck, he found himself sitting at the hospital feeling 'stunned.' He recalled that everyone present there, from family, friends, and NASCAR officials were all in shock.

In fact, Darrell Waltrip revealed that there were some things that happened at that time which he has 'blocked' out of his mind because of how 'devastating' the incident was.

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Darrell Waltrip praised NASCAR for its leaps in safety after Dale Earnhardt's death

Following the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt Sr., considered almost unanimously by many as NASCAR's greatest star ever, the governing body introduced many new measures in the line of safety. For starters, NASCAR mandated the use of the HANS device for drivers and introduced SAFER barriers at all ovals by 2005.

Further improvements were also made in elements like the safety belt harness, the fire extinguishing system in the racecar, and so on. This was something which Darrell Waltrip deemed in his 2012 interview as NASCAR doing an 'outstanding job.'

"Because of Dale's death, there's been a lot of lives that have been saved," Waltrip said.

Speaking about the same subject in 2011, a decade after Dale Earnhardt's tragic passing, Dr. John Melvin said that without any changes to NASCAR safety, 'drivers would still be dying.'

Melvin even went on to say that without the leaps in safety, there would be no NASCAR considering the Congress would've gotten involved if the sport's heroes would be risking their lives on track.