I was at the gofastturnleftdrinklotsofbeer pole night last night (Charlotte Motor Speedway) and after the pole run, ARCA ran their little shin dig.

ARCA driver Blaise Alexander was killed Thursday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The 25-year-old wrecked with only four laps to go in the EasyCare 100. Blaze Alexander's rear bumper hit the front of Kerry Earnhardt's car. Both drivers went into the wall in turn 4. Earnhardt is fine, but Alexander did not walk away from the accident. He had to be cut out of his car and was pronounced dead at the track.

"The initial report is that he died of a severe head injury. Our emergency techs and doctors were at the scene of the accident. He was unconscious, unresponsive, his pupils were fixed and dilated," said speedway spokesman Jerry Gappins.

"Earnhardt. It looked just like Dale Earnhardt. I mean the way the car hit the wall and it just all stopped," said race fan Cindy Huffman.

This was the 14th death at Lowe's Motor Speedway. That last driver to die at this track was Russell Phillips in 1995. Alexander's brother and father were in the pits. Incidentally, Alexander was not wearing the HANS safety device.


Makes me think twice before going out on course.......but some of us just love to race too much to give it up................................................ ........................

 

Yep, that does hit home


[Modified by Darth VadeR, 10:11 AM 10/5/2001]

 

That is the down side to going out on the track, just make sure u guys are safe.

 

Somber news....

Scary thing is, where he impacted the wall... is on a section that the "road course" driving schools run.


Will

 

My condolences go out to his family wherever they may be. Definetly hits home.

 

Willard - Did that happen where the road course exits back onto the main oval?

 

Nah, right after turn #4, before the dog leg and right before the braking zone into inner roadcourse.

 

Impact just before the start/finish line... then came to a rest on "drivers left" before the turn-in starting onto the infield course (turn #1).

Willis

 

Nope.. Happened on the front straight, after the two lead cars(Kerry and Blaise) were coming up on slower traffic, exiting turn 4. I was working Fire&Rescue. That was the hardest hit I have ever seen. He was unconcious when we got to the car and we had to cut the roof off to get him out. Lucky for Kerry, he made it out on his own, before we got to his car.. there was a lot of fire in his car.

 

Robert - I was wondering if you were working last night. Man, that has to be tough to see...

 

Yep.. We are supposed to be prepared to see the worst, but You can never really prepare yourself for looking at another driver, knowing that he's not going to wake up. To use Jack's terms, it really does hit home.. hard.

 

Robert,

Did Blaise just check up a bit due to the slower traffic ahead of him and Kerry didn't slow in time or was it a "racin bump" that took him out?

 

Loss of life is always a sad event...having to witness it makes it even harder.

 

race bump

 

From what I remember, they both had to slow up, due to traffic, but I think Blaise ran out of room(he was coming up on traffic pretty fast) where he was, and thought he was clear to move over in front of Kerry.. unfortunately he wasn't clear enough, and it was just enough of a tap to rotate him towards the wall.