Triumph and Tragedy ; Michael Waltrip wins the Daytona 500 in which Dale Earnhardt is killed.(Brief Article)

The images will forever remain haunting. How can they be anything else? The eerie, frightening silence that settled over Daytona International Speedway moments after Michael Waltrip won the Daytona 500. The blue tarpaulin that track workers and red-clad NASCAR officials threw over the famous black car wrecked down in Turn Four. The somewhat leisurely pace of the ambulance as it headed from the track toward nearby Halifax Medical Center.

And finally, the somber tones of NASCAR president Mike Helton speaking the unspeakable. ``This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements I have ever personally had to make. After the accident in Turn Four at the end of the Daytona 500, we have lost Dale Earnhardt.''

Just like that.

In perhaps a millisecond, the most talented, most charismatic, best-known and most popular driver in stock car racing was dead. He died instantly when his No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo twitched once, then snapped and went almost head-on into the Turn Four wall on the last lap of Winston Cup's most important event.

Fox TV replays show Earnhardt and Sterling Marlin barely touching, if they touched at all. Marlin was to Earnhardt's left rear, barely to the wheel. Ken Schrader was to Earnhardt's right rear trying to pass on the high side. Rusty Wallace was directly behind Earnhardt, drafting in hopes of salvaging a top-five finish in the $11 million race.

Seconds before Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 1-2 in Chevrolets that Dale Earnhardt owned, the company's main man died from what a Volusia County spokesman described as ``blunt force trauma to the head.'' Dr. Steve Bohannon was with one of the response teams that cut Earnhardt from his car and transported him to the nearby medical center's Level II trauma unit at 4:54 on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 18.

``We did everything we could for him, but he had what I felt were life-ending injuries at the time of the impact,'' Bohannon said at the press briefing 90 minutes after the accident. ``Really, nothing could have been done for him. He never showed any signs of life and subsequently was pronounced dead at 5:16 by all the physicians in attendance.