Two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso has been transported to a hospital in Switzerland after being involved in an accident while riding his bike.

Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Alonso was hit by a car while out training on his bike near Lugano in Switzerland. The Alpine F1 Team, the team that Alonso will race for this year during his return to Formula One, released a brief statement regarding Alonso’s condition.

Alpine F1 Team Statement pic.twitter.com/ateZJHITxj

— Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) February 11, 2021

“Alpine F1 Team can confirm that Fernando Alonso has been involved in a road accident while cycling in Switzerland,” the team statement read. “Fernando is conscious and well in himself and is awaiting further medical examinations tomorrow morning.

“Alpine F1 Team will not make any further statement at this point in time. Further updates will be given tomorrow.”

MONTREAL – Wight Motorsports Inc. will compete for the full season in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series this year with Donald Theetge and J.F. Laberge both driving for the team.

Theetge will compete for the team in the bulk of the NASCAR Pinty’s Series races, with Laberge set to compete during the road course events.

Theetge will race the No. 80 Theetge Chevrolet/Buick/GMC/Cadillac Camaro and Laberge will have additional backing from Dagobert Nightclub and Tag EKARTING & AMUSEMENT.

“We did our homework during the preseason test sessions and knew the No. 80 Theetge Chevrolet/Buick/GMC/Cadillac car would be fast,” said team owner David Wight. “Having an experienced driver like Donald also helped us run up front right from the start.

Theetge is eager to return to action this season.

“Our car was fast every weekend,” Theetge said of his effort last season during a limited schedule of races. “The team chemistry developed very quickly, and we showed our potential finishing second at Jukasa, it was like a win for us. I expect us to contend for the win every weekend this season.”

Laberge returns to the Pinty’s Series having competed most recently in 2019. Laberge ran four races, including both events at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where he raced his way forward nine positions.

“I’m very happy to be returning to this competitive series,” said Laberge. “Joining WMI and partnering with Donald is a good situation for everyone and I’m thankful to represent Dagobert Nightclub and Tag EKARTING & AMUSEMENT.”

The NASCAR Pinty’s Series schedule will feature 12 races in Ontario and Quebec. The team plans to field cars for both Teetge and Laberge during the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres, competing as a two-car outfit for the first time.

“We’ve planned our growth carefully,” explained Wight. “This will be another step forward for our growing program and give extra exposure to our partners.”

CRANDALL, Texas — A late change in plans will see both nights of the 11th Annual USMTS Texas Spring Nationals take place at the RPM Speedway in Crandall, Texas, on Feb. 26-27.

Saturday’s show was originally slated to happen at the Big O Speedway in Ennis, Texas, but is unable to take place due to unforeseen circumstances, therefore the RPM Speedway will keep the doors open one more night and double the wow factor at the Kevin Rogers and Kevin Sustaire’s bullring.

Dirt modified competitors will race for $10,000-to-win each night as the biggest, boldest and richest season in the 22-year history of the Summit USMTS National Championship fueled by Casey’s lights the fuse in the Lone Star State.

Adding to the racing program for fans and competitors, the third annual King of the Hill, sixth annual Smackdown and fifth annual Battle Royal will also be a part of the event. Those annual favorites were snowed out this week at RPM Speedway.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The intensity was already high for the non-chartered teams trying to make this year’s Daytona 500 field, but it will reach a fever pitch Thursday night during the Bluegreen Vacation Duels at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Six drivers — Austin Cindric, Kaz Grala, Ty Dillon, Timmy Hill, Garrett Smithley and Noah Gragson — will be vying for the final two positions on the starting grid for The Great American Race.

Ryan Preece and David Ragan secured their spots in the Daytona 500 field Wednesday night, by virtue of being the fastest two drivers among the eight non-chartered entries competing for the four open spots in the race.

The top-finishing non-chartered driver in each of the 60-lap, 150-mile Duel qualifying races will advance into the big show on Sunday. Should Preece or Ragan race their way into the Daytona 500, the next driver on speed would earn a spot in the show.

Cindric and Grala are the next two eligible to make the race based on speed.

For Dillon, Hill, Smithley and Gragson, their only path to make the Daytona 500 is to best the other three non-chartered drivers in their respective Duel.

It’s a situation that evokes plenty of pressure, but for Dillon it’s not an unfamiliar position. He had to race his way into the Daytona 500 during his event debut in 2015 and successfully did so.

“My first year ever coming here, I had to make it in (through the Duels), but the field wasn’t as packed as this one is. There’s a lot of talent, along with a lot of fast race cars,” Dillon noted. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a good show. Unfortunately, there’s going to be a really good driver and a really good team that has to go home tomorrow. That’s the tough part about it, but it is racing. It’s competition.

“There are going to be hurt feelings, and there are going to be celebrations too, so hopefully we are on the happy side of that one.”

Both Cindric and Grala know that, though they have potential fallback plans that could get them into the Daytona 500, they can’t rely on others racing their way in to make the race themselves.

That means it’s no-holds-barred when it comes to Thursday night’s Duels.

“I have to take a step back, because the competitive side of me wasn’t overly satisfied with our qualifying run, but I feel like personally it means a great deal just to be here,” noted Cindric. “I think it’s an opportunity that a lot of drivers work very hard to try and achieve, especially this in this side of motorsports, so for me to have a shot to get in is pretty cool. But there’s a lot of work that needs to be done and that’s pretty much all I’ve been thinking about. I’ve spent the last three weeks stressing about qualifying and the Duels, but it’s good stress. That means you’ve got something to fight for.”

“I think our lap was good in terms of performance, but we slowed down a little bit from practice,” said Grala. “We didn’t need that and I’m not sure why that happened. Cindric beating us (on speed) put us in a pretty precarious position. Our car is really good, though, and I have all the confidence in the world that we can race our way in. … I feel good about our chances; it’s just more stress than we wanted to go into Thursday with. I’m going to be learning on the go … and, hopefully, I’ve learned enough by the end.”

Perhaps the biggest story among the non-chartered entries is Gragson, who wasn’t permitted to post a qualifying time Wednesday night after his No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying inspection three times.

Gragson will have to start at the rear of his Duel and work his way toward the front if he hopes to compete in his first Daytona 500 on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s unfortunate what happened, but we still have a shot to make it in (through) the Duel,” said Gragson. “I’m thankful for the opportunity I have with Beard Motorsports. We’re ready to go.”

Cindric starts 10th in the first Duel, while Ty Dillon rolls from 17th and Hill lines up 20th.

In the second Duel, Grala rolls off 10th, Smithley starts 18th and Gragson starts 22nd.

Dillon said there will be a fine line for all six drivers to balance once they get out in the draft, with a mix of aggression and protecting the race car being key to success in each of the Duels.

“You’ve got to get the car into the race, but to get it in, you’ve got to finish the race. It’s just that; it’s a balance,” Dillon said. “You have to put yourself in the right situations. These races are wild. I remember my first duel. It’s way more aggressive than you think it’s going to be, as far as a qualifying race goes.

“I think having some experience definitely helps, but I’m sure everyone will be doing whatever it takes (to advance into the Daytona 500).”

Coverage of the Bluegreen Vacation Duels at Daytona begins Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins will wait to retire the number of pioneering Black hockey player Willie O'Ree until next year so that they can raise his No. 22 banner to the rafters with fans in the building.

The NHL said Thursday it asked the Bruins and O'Ree to postpone the ceremony until Jan. 18, 2022 -- 64 years to the day that he became the league's first Black player. It had been scheduled for next Thursday night before a game against the New Jersey Devils.

"We hope and expect the change will enable us all to commemorate this moment in a way that matches the magnitude of Willie's impact in front of a TD Garden crowd packed with passionate Bruins fans, who can express their admiration and appreciation for Willie and create the meaningful moment he has earned throughout his incredible career," the league said.

Only five of the league's 31 teams have allowed fans in the building so far this season, all at reduced capacity. Five others have announced plans to allow limited numbers soon, but the Bruins are not among them. Four teams are on pause because of COVID-19 protocols.

A Canadian who was legally blind in one eye after being struck by a puck in juniors, O'Ree broke the NHL's color barrier when he took the ice for Boston against the Montreal Canadiens on Jan. 18, 1958. It was more than a decade after Jackie Robinson integrated baseball, but still before the crosstown Red Sox fielded their first Black player.

O'Ree, 85, played two games for the Bruins that season and 43 more in 1960-61 before he was traded to the Canadiens. He never made it back to the NHL. In all, he had four goals and 10 assists.

He has been working for the NHL as a diversity ambassador since 1998.

Premier League leaders Manchester City will take a trip to Everton and Manchester United travel to Leicester City in the FA Cup quarterfinals following the draw on Thursday.

- FA Cup on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games and replays (U.S. only)
- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

Everton, who beat Tottenham Hotspur 5-4 in a thrilling match on Wednesday, will host Pep Guardiola's City, who set a top-flight record with a 15th straight victory in all competitions when they beat Championship Swansea City 3-1.

Manchester United will take on fellow league title contenders Leicester. United, who last won the FA Cup in 2016, are bidding to win the trophy for the 13th time.

Second tier Bournemouth will host fellow south coast club Southampton, who beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 on Thursday to make the last eight.

The winners of the late game between Barnsley and Chelsea will be at home to the Premier League's bottom side Sheffield United.

Bundesliga side Bayern Munich beat Liga MX's Tigres to win the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar on Thursday and secure their sixth trophy in the last 12 months.

Bayern looked to have scored in the 18th minute through a powerful Joshua Kimmich strike from outside the area, but VAR ruled that Robert Lewandowski obstructed Tigres keeper Nahuel Guzman from an offside position and the goal was chalked off.

- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
- Bundesliga on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games and replays (U.S. only)

Guzman was under constant pressure throughout the first half and saved shots from Benjamin Pavard and Alphonso Davies, while seeing Leroy Sane clatter a shot off his post as the first half finished scoreless.

The Bavarians were missing several players, including Thomas Muller, Leon Goretzka and Javi Martinez to COVID-19 infections and Jerome Boateng, who returned to Germany for personal reasons.

Despite missing key players Bayern continued to pin back Tigres, the first North American club to reach the final, with their high-pressing game.

Tigres continued to frustrate the UEFA Champions League holders in the second half, but Bayern found their opener on the hour mark when Guzman tipped a save into the path of Pavard to finish into an empty net and give his team the lead.

Bayern kept the pressure on after going ahead and left Tigres, winners of the CONCACAF Champions League, to struggle as they looked to find a way back into the match.

The victory gave Bayern and Hansi Flick their sixth trophy in the last calendar year, including the Bundesliga, the German Super Cup and the DFB Pokal, among others.

"We have the six pack now," Lewandowski said after the match. "This is a special story. We were desperate to win this title. Now we can savour this on the flight back."

Bayern, who won their other Club World Cup in 2013, join the 2009 Barcelona team as the only two sides to hold all six major available trophies on offer at the same time.

Flick has a 58-5-5 record in 68 games since taking over as manager of Bayern, having won more titles over that duration than his team has lost matches.

The Ivy League Council of Presidents has approved the opportunity for current senior student-athletes to play an additional season as graduate students next season, according to a statement sent to student-athletes on Thursday.

The statement, obtained by ESPN, makes it clear that the rule change is a one-time waiver because of the Ivy League canceling its fall and winter seasons. It won't be a permanent change.

"This change is a direct result of the pandemic and will not be available in future years," the memo states. "The waiver provides current 4th-year students the opportunity to complete their athletics experience at their current institution in 2021-22 after staying on track to graduate in four years."

It's a stark change for the Ivy League, which in the past hasn't allowed athletic redshirts or permitted graduate students to play athletics. Around 20 Ivy League men's basketball players have graduated and transferred to another school since 2015, including several at the high-major level. Former Columbia transfer Mike Smith might be the best recent example; he's the starting point guard for Michigan, the No. 3 team in college basketball.

This is Part III of a four-part series on the life, death and safety legacy of Dale Earnhardt, 20 years after his fatal crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe." - Proverbs 18

THE BIBLE VERSE was taped to the instrument panel of Dale Earnhardt's Chevy Monte Carlo when it veered into the Turn 4 wall at the end of the 2001 Daytona 500. It had been there when his crew secured his window net on pit road and he rolled away to take the green flag. And it was still there three hours later, when, in the infield grass at the bottom of that turn, Ken Schrader took that same window net down to talk with his old friend about their wrecked race cars, only to find the seven-time champion slumped over in his seat and the cockpit covered in blood.

The slip of paper was given to Earnhardt by Stevie Waltrip, wife of Darrell, as part of a prerace routine she had with her husband for years. Per Earnhardt's request, she started doing it for him as well. Her husband tried to talk her into finding a different verse, something less ominous. No, she said -- something was telling her that one was the right one.

"I've got it all right now, Darrell, I've got it all!" Earnhardt said to Waltrip two days earlier, in an interview with the rival-turned-retiree-turned-TV analyst. He talked about his renewed life as a family man, finally getting marriage and fatherhood right on the third try. He talked about his fast race car and the even faster race cars of the team he now owned. He got so excited that he leapt out of his seat. "I'm a lucky man. I've got it all!"

When we look back on tragic days in our lives, we always find what feel like missed signs of what was to come. Sometimes, it's through a formal investigation of a historic event, like a terrorist attack or space shuttle explosion. Calls of warning that were shrugged off by authorities or documents that revealed a corporation knew it was flirting with disaster but went on doing it anyway.

More often, the signs are much smaller, much more personal. A note, a comment, a last conversation with a lost loved one that wasn't really an indicator of cosmic tumblers about to fall into place, but man, in retrospect, they sure feel like it.

When we look back on Feb. 18, 2001, the day Earnhardt died at the end of that race, we find so much of both -- personal recollections about conversations that feel so foreboding now, and moments when so many racers chose to stick with the norm, even amid the constant sounds of safety experts' warnings, ambulance sirens and funeral parlor organs.

Earnhardt's death launched a NASCAR safety evolution that continues 20 years later. But the people who lived that day in the arena with the man in his final hours still find themselves wrestling with the reality that Dale Earnhardt is gone.

THE 2001 DAYTONA 500 was without question the most hyped and anticipated event in NASCAR's then-53-year history. It was the first race of a new six-year billion-dollar broadcast deal and Fox Sports had wallpapered the nation in promotion, from ads during NFL playoff games to getting Terry Bradshaw named grand marshal of the event, complete with a Daytona 500 Eve ridealong with Earnhardt, who jerked the wheel like he was headed into the wall just to scare the four-time Super Bowl champ. A revamped superspeedway rules package, the same one Earnhardt used to earn his already legendary 18th-to-first dash at Talladega, promised to provide an entertaining event. And Earnhardt's 2000 resurgence as a title contender had the old-school fandom worked into a frenzy.

"People didn't realize how hurt Dale had been back in 1996 and then again in '99," recalls Richard Childress, car owner for six of Earnhardt's seven Winston Cup championships and his closest friend in the garage. A broken collarbone at Talladega and Earnhardt's rushed return had taken away his feel for the car. A broken bone in his neck at Atlanta had him essentially driving with one arm in 1999.

"He got real discouraged and he talked about quitting, but I begged him to come back," Childress says. "I told him it wasn't him. Our cars weren't fast enough and I'd fix that. I talked him into it. He got fixed up and our cars got fixed up and in 2000 we almost won the championship."

Earnhardt was seemingly everywhere throughout 2001 Speedweeks. He finished second in his division in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, second to youngster Tony Stewart in the Bud Shootout All-Star event, and third in his 125-mile qualifier. On Friday, he produced a genuine Intimidator moment when he was spun out by Indy 500 champ Eddie Cheever in an IROC event, sliding his Pontiac through the grass, whipping it back up onto the banking, finishing seventh, then stalking a terrified Cheever on pit road after the race.

He uncharacteristically bounded through his media obligations and answered hard questions about NASCAR safety, including in an interview with Ed Hinton of the Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel, who was reporting on those issues as part of a series running that week. It suggested that, had Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin Jr. and Tony Roper worn head and neck restraints, they would likely still be alive. That's when Earnhardt, asked if he would wear a HANS device, had groused, "I ain't wearing that damn noose."

He was so adamant in his distaste of the carbon fiber brace that when General Motors, Ford and NASCAR brought esteemed automotive safety expert Dr. John Melvin to a January 2001 Daytona 500 test session to make a presentation to drivers on its benefits, Earnhardt was the only no-show. In the days leading up to the race, his car's garage stall was in between those of Dale Jarrett and Bill Elliott, both of whom were fitted for devices by HANS co-inventor Robert Hubbard.

"I was within a few feet of Earnhardt and he just didn't want to hear about the HANS," Hubbard recalled in his book "Crash! From Senna to Earnhardt," published just prior to Hubbard's death in February 2019. "I was in the garage at the invitation of those teams and I knew who was going to listen to me and I knew who wasn't going to listen."

The evening before the 2001 Daytona 500, Earnhardt held a business meeting with old friend and rival Terry Labonte. As they signed what was sure to be a lucrative souvenir contract, Earnhardt suddenly said, "That's if I make it that far." When everyone else in the room broke out into laughter, he never joined them.

"It was strange enough when he said it at the time," Labonte said when he recalled the comment in 2019. "But it sure came back to my mind just about exactly 24 hours later."

On race day, there were so many of those stories, especially during the prerace ceremonies. Teresa Earnhardt, always quick to leave the grid and get back to the motorcoach in time to watch the start of races, instead uncharacteristically lingered. Her good luck kiss to her husband, captured on live TV, looked longer and more impassioned than normal.

Even the walk to get to that point had been different. Normally, his march to his waiting ride was a gotta-get-there mission. But this time he stopped to shake hands, laugh it up and hug it out.

"He came up and was like, 'Hey, you can do this. We've got good cars, man. We're gonna do this together,'" recalls Dale Earnhardt Jr. "He didn't do that before races. I never saw him. I'd be at my car getting in and he wouldn't come up to me, you know? Like, dang, I was just another racer. But this time, he made a point to come see me."

He also threw his arms around Kyle Petty, the man whom he worked so hard to avoid throughout the 2000 season after Petty's 19-year-old son, Adam, was killed in a Busch Series practice crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on May 12, mortally wounded with a basilar skull fracture. The car was Adam's No. 45 and Kyle Petty's HANS device was sitting in the cockpit waiting for him, one of only five drivers in the 43-car field to wear one that day.

"There's a great photo of that moment," Petty says. "He hugged me and said, 'I'm thinking about you and I love you. I just want you to know that, and I know this is hard.' And that was it. He got in his car and I got in my car and we ran a race."

THE RACE ITSELF was a good one, with 49 lead changes swapped among 14 different race leaders. Earnhardt led four times for a total of 17 laps up front. He diced it up all day with old Daytona 500 rival Sterling Marlin, and two cars he owned, driven by Michael Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr.

"A great day was unfolding," then-NASCAR president Mike Helton remembers thinking from race control, the press box booth where NASCAR executives and officials monitor and officiate the race below. Behind Helton sat NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. in the "crow's nest." France Jr. was happy. Fox was happy. So were the 150,000 people in attendance, as indicated by their roars whenever The Intimidator took the lead.

"I thought for us to be able to deliver it to Fox on their premiere Daytona 500," Helton says, "was everything we wanted it to be for the audience that was watching it on television."

The only big-ticket item missing from the show was the "Big One." It happened with 25 laps to go, a multicar crash on the backstretch that involved 20 cars, nearly half the field. Tony Stewart's orange No. 20 machine took a hard right-hand turn and drilled the concrete wall with a perfectly centered shot from the nose of his Pontiac. As the car turned around backward, a pair of roof flaps snapped into place, designed to keep the 3,400-pound machine from going airborne. But two hits from onrushing cars punted Stewart's car into the air. It did a pirouette, landing on the hood of another car and barrel-rolling twice before landing atop teammate Bobby Labonte's car and eventually sliding to rest, destroyed, in the backstretch grass.

It looked -- and was -- awful. But Stewart climbed out of what was left of his car, shaken but OK. But how, especially without any head and neck restraints?

When NASCAR and Joe Gibbs Racing looked over the car in the garage, they discovered that the steering wheel was bent, dented from the impact of Stewart's full-face helmet. The head-on collision meant his head had traveled straight forward, stopped before it could extend into a deadly head whip. His steering wheel had likely saved his life.

"So, there's a stupid saying that you'll hear around the sport. 'The ones that look really bad are never really bad, and the ones that don't look bad can be bad,'" Petty explains. "Tony's crash looked really bad, right? Stuff flying everywhere. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. That's energy that's leaving. It's going away from me with that junk. It's not going back into my body as a race car driver. And that's the other stupid saying you'll hear. 'It's not how fast you go, it's how fast you stop.' And Tony never really stopped, did he?"

With the field parked under a red flag so crews could clean up the mess, Earnhardt chatted with Childress on the radio. "He was relieved when we told him that Tony was OK," Childress recalls. "Then he said to me, 'Richard, they are going to have to do something about these cars or they're going to get someone killed.' At the time I was like, 'OK, man, I hear you.' But we were all focused on getting the race restarted."

The restart came on Lap 180, with 20 to go. On Lap 183, Earnhardt was in the lead. One circuit later, he allowed Michael Waltrip to slide by, taking Earnhardt Jr. with him. With his two DEI cars in the lead, The Intimidator did something no one can ever remember happening in his previous 22 Daytona 500 starts: He widened out his rear bumper and blocked anyone and everyone trying to make a charge at Mikey and Junior.

"We all knew that the biggest threat to keep one of us from winning the race was Sterling [Marlin]," Waltrip says of those frantic final 17 laps, running first with a mirror full of teammate Earnhardt Jr. and the black Chevy of Senior zigzagging back and forth to keep two different lines of cars at bay, the inside line led by Marlin and Rusty Wallace and the group in the outside lane led by Schrader.

As that scramble rolled through the final two turns of the event, Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. were breaking away, hammering off Turn 4 toward the checkered flag. Marlin had attempted one last push to catch them, moving below Senior down the backstretch. That opened the door for a wall of cars, three-wide behind Earnhardt as they entered the last turn.

When Earnhardt dropped low in front of Marlin, he hadn't completely cleared the nose of the No. 40 Dodge and was turned to the left and onto the flat apron at the bottom of the track. That forced Earnhardt's car to ricochet back up into the steep 31-degree banking, cutting across the front of the pack of the cars behind him.

For a fraction of a second, the nose of Earnhardt's Chevy corrected itself, pointed briefly in the right direction to resume racing. There was even a puff of brake smoke. It looked as though his save from Friday's IROC race might happen again. But then Schrader's car hit Earnhardt in the passenger side door, creating a sudden surge of speed and turning both cars into the wall. Schrader was sandwiched between the concrete barrier and the nose of Earnhardt's ride.

According to the official accident report, Earnhardt's Monte Carlo was traveling 160 mph when it blasted into the bare concrete wall at the 1 o'clock angle and immediately decelerated by 42-44 mph. The impact registered around 60 G's, so much force that it pushed the entire right front corner of the car from an aerodynamic curve into a flat surface that fit the wall as perfectly as a jigsaw puzzle piece. The engine stayed put, but everything around it moved, in some cases a full two or three feet to the right.

His 184-pound body was thrown far enough out into the right center of the cockpit that he suffered a blow to the back of his head. Earnhardt suffered a broken ankle, broken ribs, a fractured sternum and cuts to his scalp and chin. But the fatal injury was a basilar skull fracture, with breaks in every bone where the skull meets the spine. The impact also broke a left side lap belt that was already frayed, but multiple doctors interviewed said that, due to the nature of a basilar skull fracture, Earnhardt's mortal wound had already been inflicted by the time the force of the crash broke the belt.

All of these events happened in the span of 80 milliseconds.

ON THE FOX broadcast, Darrell Waltrip shouted encouragement to his brother as Michael snapped a career 462-race winless streak to become Daytona 500 champion. But he was immediately distracted by Earnhardt's crash, watching the No. 3 car as it slid down the banking and into the infield grass, clearly under no control. To the 17 million people watching at home, the crash looked like nothing, especially compared to Stewart's spectacular accident a half-hour earlier.

But the racers knew better.

"You could tell in the communication from those arriving on scene," Helton says of his view from race control. "And watching Ken Schrader, quite frankly, move around the way he was moving around. You got the sense that something wasn't right."

Schrader became the day's unwitting messenger of tragedy. His car slid alongside Earnhardt's and they stopped nose-to-door in the infield grass. When he limped around to talk to his friend, he instead dropped the window net to an unimaginable scene.

Months later, when the photos of the car were released as part of NASCAR's presentation of its crash investigation, hardly any image didn't include blood stains. To this day, all Schrader will say of what he saw is, "I just knew that it wasn't good. Dale was in serious trouble." His sudden frantic waving to the arriving trucks of the Daytona International Speedway safety crew was the first real indication to the world that something was indeed very wrong.

Dr. Steve Bohannon had been a Daytona Beach resident since 1986, working at Halifax Health Medical Center, located less than a mile and a half from the speedway's start-finish line. In 2000, he was hired by the racetrack as its chief emergency doctor. He arrived at Earnhardt's car less than 10 minutes after the crash, after crews had already cut the roof off the car and a surgeon stationed closer to the scene had already been administering resuscitation efforts.

"Any time the driver's unconscious, we know it's going to be a difficult situation," Bohannon said in January during a visit to Daytona, his first time back to the track in years. "When I arrived and took a look, he had obvious signs of what we call a basilar skull fracture -- things we don't like to see in a driver, blood coming out of the nose and airway, blood coming out of the ears. Unconscious, unresponsive, not trying to breathe.

"Truthfully, when I took a look at him in his car, when you have no signs of life after a major blunt trauma, major car accident, the chances of being resuscitated and survival from that are close to zero, but we try heroic measures."

While Michael Waltrip pulled into Victory Lane, Earnhardt Jr. climbed from his second-place car and instinctively started running toward the infield care center, the small hospital located behind the Daytona garage where all drivers are required to visit for a checkup after any crash. He made eye contact with Schrader, who was behind a curtain being examined. As soon as Earnhardt Jr. saw Schrader's eyes, he knew he would need to go offsite to Halifax Medical to see his father.

In the Halifax Medical trauma room, Bohannon and his coworkers tried to inflate Earnhardt's collapsed lungs, performed a chest X-ray and continued pumping his body with blood. There were 12 to 15 medical personnel in the room, each doing their task amid the controlled chaos. That's when Bohannon realized someone else was in the room with them. It was Teresa Earnhardt.

"She stood on the back wall of the room, and she was very composed. She didn't interrupt, she didn't, um, disrupt anything," he says. "She was the only one that was in the room other than medical personnel."

She had arrived with her stepson, Earnhardt Jr. The trauma room was just inside the door. He took one look and instantly recognized by the body language of the doctors that the battle was over.

"We went in there and knew it right away," he remembers now. "When I realized that was the way that this was going to go, that Dad was gone, I turned and saw [Earnhardt's PR representative] J.R. Rhodes and ran to him. There was this noise coming out of me that I can't re-create. I couldn't do it for you right now. It's just like a bellow of shock and sorrow and fear."

"Having Dad was like a cheat sheet, like knowing all the answers to everything. And I was like, 'Man, I'm going to have to do this without that for the rest of my life.'" Dale Earnhardt Jr.

In the waiting room, Childress was with other family and crew members. He was beating himself up for talking his friend out of quitting and couldn't shake that "they're going to get someone killed" comment during the red flag. Darrell Waltrip was there too, with a growing number of NASCAR officials. When the news was brought to them from the emergency room, everyone there in that moment who talks about it now says what they remember most is silence.

"To this day, I don't know why I went to the hospital," Waltrip says. "I think it was just to be with my family, my racing family. We compete and sometimes we fight and we want to beat each other on the racetrack, but this is a small group of people who do what we do. We travel together, we live together, we're a tribe.

"So, now, here we all were, balancing grief, the loss of our friend. But I think we were all also thinking, 'Where do we all go from here? The leader is gone. How did we let this happen?'"

ONE BY ONE, cars started leaving the hospital to return to Daytona International Speedway. Michael Waltrip was not there. Schrader had walked to Victory Lane and delivered the terrible news of what he believed had happened in the middle of Waltrip's celebration, causing Waltrip to leave immediately.

Bohannon was still in the trauma room, watching a technician prepare Earnhardt's body for the mortuary. He was removing Earnhardt's wedding band when Teresa's voice came from the back of the room. All she said was, "No."

"The technician looked at me like, 'What do I do?' And I said, 'Do what she says,'" Bohannon says. "I walked out after that. That's always stayed with me."

Bohannon rode back to the track with Helton. It had been nearly two hours and they were about to step into the media center to address the world. The doctor had never been to a news conference, let alone be asked to field questions in one. Before stepping out of the NASCAR trailer, Helton asked his colleagues, "How in the world do I say that we've lost Dale Earnhardt?"

NASCAR vice president Paul Brooks replied: "Just like that."

Helton walked into the room packed with cameras, held his microphone and worked up the courage not to cry over the loss of his friend. "This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements that I've ever personally had to make," he began, "but after the accident in Turn 4 at the end of the Daytona 500 ... we've lost Dale Earnhardt."

In the garage, just a few paces from where Helton was speaking, Earnhardt Jr. had returned to the garage to see his team. Crew chief Tony Eury Sr. was also his uncle, handpicked by Earnhardt Sr. to lead his son's career. He told Eury what had happened, assuming he already knew, but it was the first he was hearing of it, and the stoic old mechanic broke down.

"I went back in my bus in the room and shut the door to my bedroom and just sat there," Earnhardt Jr. says. "I thought to myself in that very moment, 'I'm gonna have to do this by myself.' The rest of my life. Having Dad was like a cheat sheet, like knowing all the answers to everything. And I was like, 'Man, I'm going to have to do this without that for the rest of my life.'"

The 24-year-old thought about himself, his own racing career and his life as a fatherless son. But he had might as well have been conjuring the feelings of the entirety of NASCAR.

"I was like, 'Man, I don't know what's next.' I thought I had this path and this direction, with him, to do what we were going to do. Whatever that was. Racing and winning, Budweiser and No. 8 cars, DEI, championships," he says. "And now I'm thinking, 'I wonder what's gonna happen with all this stuff?' It was weird. It was a weird emotion. Where were we supposed to go now?"

On the night of Feb. 18, 2001, phones started ringing at the homes of HANS device co-inventors Jim Downing in Atlanta and Robert Hubbard in Michigan. The calls were from stock car drivers and teams. They wanted to talk about head and neck restraints. NASCAR's safety revolution was finally taking shape.

This four-part series concludes Friday with a final installment focusing on safety improvements in the sport over the past 20 years, leading to Ryan Newman surviving his frightening crash at the 2020 Daytona 500.

The British hurdler and school teacher is aiming to continue her athletics education by making her class of supporters proud

Particularly when an athlete is in such great shape, it is understandable that taking precautions to avoid injury is high on the agenda. For Jessie Knight, however, it is not just her immediate athletics support team that is looking out for her wellbeing. She also has a class full of eight and nine-year-olds acting as her bodyguards.

Knight balances her rising track career with her job as a primary school teacher and when she achieved her indoor breakthrough success in February 2020 she was working full-time at Danetree Primary School in Epsom, Surrey.

As her athletics performances continued on an upward trajectory and she switched from the indoor 400m to her 400m hurdles specialism outdoors, the year four teacher decided to drop down to three days a week at school.

It still proves to be a juggling act but Miss Knight would have it no other way and her motivation to make this year’s Olympic Games is heightened by her passion to do her class proud.

“The dream would be to get to the Olympics because I think it would have such a positive impact on the whole school, especially after having a bit of a rubbish 2020,” Knight explains. “I really hope that things go to plan this year so I can share it with them.

“It’s so funny because the children protect me. When I am going around and marking their books, if they are swinging on their chair they are really scared that they are going to stub my toe or something,” the 26-year-old adds.

“They are so scared of me getting injured, they wrap me up in bubble wrap. It is so lovely that I get to share it with them. Everyone at school is on the journey with me.”

“The dream would be to get to the Olympics because I think it would have such a positive impact on the whole school”

That journey actually started for Knight when she was in year four at school herself and her teacher, Mr Bezodis, spotted her athletics talent. His encouragement brought her out of her shell.

“I was quite shy, to be honest,” Knight remembers. “When I was really little they thought I was deaf because I didn’t speak. My mum would test me and whisper and I could hear perfectly fine, I just didn’t really like talking to people.

“He (Mr Bezodis) made me feel like I was really good at something, which as a child is nice. I hope that I can have that impact on my children.”

From that point Knight continued to combine her athletics with study and work but 2017 was a turning point and she decided to focus on her teaching career.

Luckily for the sport she made a comeback in 2019, teaming up with coach Marina Armstrong, and her hard work really came to fruition last winter when she beat a top 400m field with a big PB of 51.57 at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow. Back at the Emirates Arena a week later, she won her first British title.

“It was an amazing start and then, for coronavirus to happen just a month later, it hit me quite hard because I have never had a GB vest and I felt like I had finally got to that level where I could [achieve one], probably at the biggest event there is, and everything just got cancelled or postponed.

“I was so lucky to be able to have those races outdoors,” adds the Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow athlete, who improved her 400m hurdles best to 55.27, set a British 300m hurdles record of 39.35, won another UK title and made her Diamond League debut.

“I ran a huge PB over the hurdles and I literally took every opportunity I got. I crammed a lot in but I have learned so much so the outdoor races I did do were really beneficial.”

While admitting that initially she was “a bit down in the dumps” following news of the Olympic Games postponement, Knight now views it as another year to be even stronger.

“I felt like it was my moment, in a sense, and as an athlete you don’t know what will happen with injuries and you don’t really get many times where you feel that positive, mentally and physically,” she reflects.

“But I have switched that into motivation and I thought, actually maybe I would have scraped into the Olympics in 2020 but now I am actually thinking I want to get there and really perform.”

Tokyo is not her only goal in 2021, however, and she hopes to make the most of every opportunity, with her sights also on the European Indoor Championships, World Relays and European Team Championships.

“At this point, I just feel really excited,” she says. “I have got a countdown app on my phone of all the things coming up in the next couple of years.”

“Maybe I would have scraped into the Olympics in 2020 but now I am actually thinking I want to get there and really perform”

But the Olympics is the big one and it’s also the event for which her school of supporters will be out in full force.

“I had to tell my class that I wouldn’t be there in January when they go back (while Knight was away on a training camp) and they did look gutted,” she says. “But when I explained why, they said ‘oh you’re training for the Olympics!’

“For them, they don’t think about World Relays and things, they only think about the Olympics, that’s the thing they know, so they said ‘okay, we’re going to miss you but have a good time!’”