Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty are era-defining drivers. From the 1950s to the 1990s, Earnhardt and Petty were two names always associated with NASCAR. The duo grabbed 7 Cup Series championships each while dominating the sport. Dale Earnhardt even got the opportunity to race against Petty’s son, Kyle Petty, however, a tragic incident left the Intimidator silent and unable to speak to Kyle.

This was around a time when the Petty family was experiencing a very dark period. In May 2000, fourth-generation driver, Adam Petty, son of Kyle Petty, tragically lost his life at the New Hampshire Speedway. He was just 19 years old at the time of his death, two months shy of his 20th birthday.

Of course, the Petty family were grieving the loss of Adam. However, it was Dale Earnhardt’s reaction that surprised Kyle Petty. It pretty much led to a moment where both Petty and Earnhardt could bond with each other. Even though they were rivals on the race track, this tragedy helped bring the two together.

Dale Earnhardt couldn’t handle the parallels

Kyle Petty’s NASCAR career might not compare to his father’s but it’s something he can surely be proud of. The King’s son ran 829 Cup races in his career, finishing as high as fifth in the standings on two occasions (1992 and 1993). However, the incident in 2000 changed everything, not only for Petty but for Dale Earnhardt too.

Petty recalls the incident, saying, “Earnhardt, if we were walking through the garage area, and he was 100 yards away and he saw me. He would turn and go the other way. He would not speak to me. So he’s walking back out the bus lot. I see him and I just run up to him. ‘Listen, how’s it going, man?’ He never skipped a beat and he said, ‘I am so sorry. I just don’t know what to say to you.’ I said, ‘I just want you to know, we can talk. You don’t have to keep avoiding me.'”

Losing a child is a horrible experience that no parent should ever go through. Adam Petty’s son was just 19 and starting his racing career, and that’s what hit Dale Earnhardt the most. His son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was also slowly paving his way into NASCAR at the time, with two Xfinity championships (1998 and 1999) to close out the 20th century and made his Cup Series debut in 2000. The Intimidator didn’t know how to talk to Kyle because he could only imagine the pain of losing Junior and the parallels were too much for him to handle.

Echoing this sentiment, Petty added, “For him, it just hit too close to home with Dale Jr. He couldn’t wrap his head around Adam being gone because Adam and Junior had run together at Myrtle Beach Speedway, and they had raced together and done stuff together, and he just didn’t know what to say.”

Adam’s loss was tragic and a real story of ‘what could have been.’ This is because many had touted him as a rising star in the NASCAR scene. In fact, many tipped him to become the next great Petty after great-grandfather Lee, and grandfather, Richard Petty. In his short life, he recorded a best finish of 4th in the then Busch Series. As for the Cup level, Adam Petty only had one start in 2000 with Petty Enterprises, finishing 40th. This death sent ripples across the NASCAR community but the events that took place in 2001 sent a shockwave.

Who could have predicted the events of nine months later

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2000 was already shaping up to be a bad year for NASCAR. After Adam Petty’s untimely passing, Kenny Irwin Jr died at the same track and the same corner, two months later. Merely seven months after Irwin Jr’s death, NASCAR would have one more fatality. That fatality was none other than Dale Earnhardt himself during the 2001 Daytona 500. A last-lap collision with Ken Schrader sent the Intimidator into the retaining wall where he crashed and suffered a basilar skull fracture, leading to his death.

Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were also competing during that fateful 2001 Daytona 500 at the time. How difficult it must have been for Petty to witness his son, and then a dear friend, die within 9 months of each other. For Dale Jr., losing his racing buddy and his father on the racetrack within a year of each other must have been a harrowing experience. However, Dale Earnhardt’s death ushered in an era of safety never seen before, which is why he remains the last fatality on the track. “When it happened to dad, everybody said if it happened to him, then it made everybody face how delicate their situation could be,” Dale Jr. said on the reason for urgent safety changes after his dad’s demise.

During his time as a driver, Dale Earnhardt was an advocate of safety in racing but the efforts were too little too late to save him. When softer barriers were ideated to absorb a crash, people criticized it for the time it would take to clean the mess up. To this, Earnhardt said, “I’d rather wait 15 or 20 minutes for them to clean up that mess than for them to clean me off the wall.” After his demise, safety barriers were the norm in NASCAR, along with HANS (Head and Neck Safety) devices were among significant changes made to the sport to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.