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Wednesday, July 4 A day, a device, a lawsuit By Tom Rife Scripps Howard News Service Until all the glow-in-the-dark cars and colorful drivers have safely crossed the finish line, eased off the gas pedal, traveled down pit road and made the hard left-hand turn back into the Daytona International Speedway's garage area, there's going to be an amplified uneasiness about Saturday night's Pepsi 400. Why? Because of what happened the last time NASCAR's heroes ran a competitive lap at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. It was the lap heard around the world, the Feb. 18 lap on which stock car racing icon Dale Earnhardt died as the result of injuries sustained when his car hit the outside retaining wall at a not-so-odd angle and at a not-so-odd speed considering the nature of the sport. Earnhardt's crash caused us all to understand the need to find a blend of emotion and fact-finding, to deal with a sensitivity of a grieving spouse and yet, look after the interest of other couples wed to and through motor sports. Who wins Saturday night's race matters in the points standings. It matters because teams will benefit from the prize money they earn based on their finish. It matters because television -- NBC officially takes the FOX handoff -- will be watching the ratings and the fans will be watching to see if NBC can measure up to the creative, stirring coverage the so-called new kid provided during the first half of the season. But none of that matters as much as the last lap of the Daytona 500, a moment in time from which, there has been much ado about a variety of matters as critical to NASCAR's credibility as the survival of the sport itself. For race fans, of course, the most important thing is that even without its seven-time Winston Cup champion, even without its Intimidator, even without its greatest driver ever, stock car racing in America has endured. That in and of itself speaks volumes about the power and popularity of the mechanized mayhem that often begs us to find order. But it's not enough just to look back and review what happened on that blackest of black racing Sundays. And while the trend in the days that lead up to the next race will be to do just that and only that, it would be wiser to look at the big picture. It would be more prudent to understand the far-reaching impact of one racing accident -- and the death it caused. On the surface, it can be said that largely because of Earnhardt's death, others in the seemingly fearless fraternity he headed have succumbed to old-fashioned ways of which NASCAR often boasted. Two thirds of the drivers now wear some sort of head and neck support system even though the sport's governing body still refuses to require it. The HANS device might well have saved the life not only of the man who drove the black No. 3 Chevrolet. It might also have rescued Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper, who in the year 2000 also died of basal skull fractures when their machines were involved in violent mishaps on the track. It was the death of those three men -- and other racers who died from similar injuries -- that prompted the Orlando Sentinel to spend six months investigating safety in the sport, and specifically, NASCAR's approach to safety. All this research and the three in-depth articles the Sentinel published on the topic took place prior to Earnhardt's death. The stories, incidentally, are still published on the newspaper's Web site for those who prefer to believe that the Sentinel was only out for blood in its persistence to view the autopsy photos and look further into how and why Earnhardt died and how NASCAR was prepared to handle such scrutiny. Out for blood? Tim Franklin, the Sentinel's editor/vice president, bore the brunt of the wrath directed at the paper. But once it became clear that his reporters were only out to prevent further bloodshed inside the cramped cockpit of a race car, many of Franklin's cohorts applauded not only his persistence, but his paper's dogged, hard reporting of facts that at times were and still are very difficult to come by. NASCAR, which by as recent as Monday's NBC evening news, has admitted mistakes in its handling of the matter, says its investigation will be completed and the findings will be released in full sometime in August. Those who look at racing through objective lenses will be waiting, that's for sure. NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. and president Mike Helton understand that as of right now, there is no more margin for error. Earnhardt's death was more than a racing accident. It was a tragedy that might have been avoided, but because it wasn't, forced NASCAR and its track operators and most avid fans to look at just how important it is to be prepared for the worst and then be accountable for it. Earnhardt's death even changed Florida law as it relates to the public access of autopsy photos and how evidence in accidental deaths is/isn't scrutinized. Earnhardt's crash caused us all to understand the need to find a blend of emotion and fact-finding, to deal with a sensitivity of a grieving spouse and yet, look after the interest of other couples wed to and through motor sports. Auto racing? Feb. 18, 2001, made us all understand that it's more than some fancy passing.  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