Filed under: Tony Stewart, Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR Crashes, FanHouse Exclusive, NASCAR
More often than you'd guess, Tony Stewart calls up the YouTube video of his wild, death-defying crash in the closing laps of the 2001 Daytona 500. But not for reasons you might think.In the short video clip, he watches his orange No. 20 get hit from behind on the massive Daytona International Speedway backstretch, turning it directly toward 200-mph oncoming traffic. As the rear of Stewart's Chevrolet catches air and starts to launch vertically, cars take evasive action.
That's where Stewart pauses the video. He even has a still photograph of this very moment (right).
Just as Stewart's car lifts off the ground -- seconds before he endures violent barrel rolls and smashes into a half-dozen cars -- the black No. 3 Chevrolet escapes through the smoke and frenzy unscathed. Its driver, Dale Earnhardt, heads to the front of the field to contend for the win. As usual.
"That's the part that bothers me the most,'' Stewart explained in an exclusive interview with AOL FanHouse, speaking in depth about that fateful Feb. 18, 2001 afternoon when NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
"It's like, if I could have just nicked him on the way by, would it have changed things just enough to keep his accident later from happening? There's no way anyone would ever wreck and think about hitting someone else believing it would do any good. I was along for the ride.
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"But, it was just like, what if?'' Stewart adds, shaking his head, lowering his voice and making eye contact for emphasis. "If you looked at the two wrecks, you would have swore I was the one. ... that if one of the guys passed away, you'd have swore it was from my crash, not his.
"Like a parent or, really, any person that loses a loved one, it makes you think of things that aren't realistic, but I always see that picture and think what would have happened if I had clipped him just a little then, would it have changed all this?''
"Like a parent or, really, any person that loses a loved one, it makes you think of things that aren't realistic, but I always see that picture and think what would have happened if I had clipped him just a little then, would it have changed all this?''
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