| | | It's time to move on.
|  | | Teresa Earnhardt has been forced to answer enough questions about her husband's death. |
NASCAR's report on Dale Earnhardt's crash must not become the Warren Report of sports. Earnhardt's widow, Teresa, and his family don't deserve it.
I hear the exhaustion in the drivers' voices during their interviews. They are tired of talking about Earnhardt's crash and the surrounding circumstances. So imagine how desperately Earnhardt's loved ones must need closure.
NASCAR's four-month investigation is the most in-depth study into driver safety in the organization's 52-year history. Ironically, the report and its very public release seem to be more for the obsessed fan and overzealous journalist than for the drivers.
The NASCAR community has lost four drivers over the past two seasons from similar skull fractures. I'm guessing the drivers and crew members didn't need a report to explain the severity of those crashes. They attended the funerals.
True to their nature, the drivers reacted quickly to the Earnhardt report. Some drivers might have waited to see it before commenting on it. However, they didn't wait to make practical adjustments.
During Sunday's race at the Michigan International Speedway, one of NASCAR's fastest tracks, all but two of the 43 drivers in the field used a head-and-neck restraint system. With the urging of Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wore the added protection for the first time in his career during that race.
|  | | The autopsy photos won't tell us any more about Earnhardt's crash than we already know. |
Such restraint systems and seat belts have been the two most discussed safety issues since the crash. "Was the seat belt torn?" has been a question since Teresa Earnhardt won a court order sealing her husband's autopsy photos.
The court appointed medical examiner who viewed the photos as part of an agreement with Teresa and the Orlando Sentinel said the belt was not a factor in Earnhardt's death. That's the examiner's conclusion, regardless of NASCAR's sloppy handling of details in the days immediately following the Daytona 500.
Yet, for The Independent Florida Alligator, the medical examiner's conclusions were not enough. I hope NASCAR's report will be. The paper's "Generation Y" journalists are
appealing the judge's decision to seal the photos. Florida lawmakers have even passed a law that prohibits all autopsy photos from being made public, unless a judge rules that they be unsealed.
I fear these journalists are so busy being crusaders for the First Amendment and Freedom of Information Act that they have forgotten the people involved and the specious news value of the photos themselves.
|  | | Dale Earnhardt Jr. wore a head-and-neck restraint system for the first time last weekend. |
I will never forget the young widow Earnhardt on the witness stand, testifying that her husband's autopsy photos are grotesque.
Teresa did not make her request before the court as part of a massive NASCAR conspiracy cover-up. She did so as a wife, partner, and mom -- a mom who is
worried that her husband's children would someday see their father's autopsy photos on the Internet.
As the mind behind Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, Teresa knows how far fanatics will go for a piece of her husband. People buy clocks and cheese spreaders with his picture on it. She's right to assume that there's a perverse audience out there willing to buy and circulate his final photos.
The line of questioning Teresa faced on the stand might have been necessary from a legal standpoint, but it was infuriating to watch nonetheless. She was asked if she actually authored the request? "No." Her lawyers did, but she read it. When exactly did she read it? "February 19th or 20th maybe?" She wasn't sure. Her husband had died only a day earlier.
Imagine if your spouse had suddenly died? If it were my husband, I would remember Feb. 17 and then maybe some day in March, maybe April. Listening to her, I so
admired her poise, grace and conviction. She was part mom, part CEO of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.
Feb. 18, the date of Earnhardt's death, is my birthday. Sitting here in August, it seems like a long time ago. Yet, well-intentioned fans, track owners and reporters have asked the Earnhardts to relive and mourn his death each weekend. The report no doubt will make the same demands on their time and emotions.
But their burden is heavy enough away from racing. Junior, in place of his father, walked his sister down the aisle at her wedding. Teresa, alone, will send her daughter off to school this fall.
Both are reminders that, despite the madness, life moves on. I hope this report makes life safer for drivers and more peaceful for the loved ones, starting with Teresa Earnhardt. But I know that can't happen if NASCAR's report takes on a life of its own.
SportsCenter anchor Chris McKendry is a regular columnist for Page 2. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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