"We've lost Dale Earnhardt," NASCAR president Mike Helton said.

Those words might force NASCAR to take a look at its safety policies.

The week that started with a return to tight racing in Winston Cup was tempered with close scrutiny of NASCAR's policies regarding driver safety.

NASCAR fan Terry Monreal mourns the death of Dale Earnhardt outside Halifax Memorial Hospital.(AP)

It ends with the death of stock car racing's biggest star at the age of 49 from massive injuries in the series' biggest race, the Daytona 500.

This after a 2000 season that saw the deaths of:

• Adam Petty (May '00, Busch practice at New Hampshire)
• Kenny Irwin (July '00, Winston Cup practice at New Hampshire)
• Tony Roper (October '00, Craftsman Truck race, Texas Motor Speedway)

The magnifying glass turned on NASCAR, after the deaths of Petty, Irwin and Roper, will turn into an electron microscope with Earnhardt's death, much as Ayrton Senna's death in 1994 at Imola made safety a big issue Formula One quickly moved to address.

We tend to forget that Roland Ratzenberger died in a practice at Imola before Senna's fatal ride. Though no one has forgotten Petty, Irwin or Roper, it is Earnhardt's death that may bring about changes in stock car racing.

There is no avoiding it now -- NASCAR should forget the hand-wringing and announce something, anything. Remove the veil of secrecy and release what steps they are taking to protect the most precious commodity its series has.

Its drivers.

The fans will demand it.

The drivers, once they get over the immediate shock of Earnhardt's death, will petition for it.

And the sponsors will twist as many arms as they can to assure it.

Good day gone bad

Sunday could not have started any better and ended any worse for NASCAR. The aerodynamic changes, carried over from Talladega, had given glimpses of what the 500 would be like, with the Bud Shootout and the Twin 125s producing numerous passes and lead changes, plus one photo finish when Mike Skinner nipped Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the line to win the second Gatorade qualifier.

The 500 was playing out fast and furious -- the fans were on their feet most of the race and NASCAR couldn't have been happier.

And in the middle of it all was the Intimidator, who had rounded off all four corners of his car by the midway point of the event, bumping and grinding his way through the top 10 to the lead on several occasions.

He even took the time to point out to rookie Kurt Busch who was in the lead when the No. 97 Roush Ford driver bumped Earnhardt's black No. 3 Chevrolet.

But the drivers had been warning that the aero changes made the racing too close, the cars too bunched up and, 24 laps from the end, the caution proved correct when Robby Gordon's car got involved with Tony Stewart, who in turn was pooched by Ward Burton.

As Stewart's No. 20 Pontiac spun backwards it went airborne, causing a scramble behind him. Burton's No. 22 Dodge was making even more of a mess, since he was sideways and in the middle of the track.

In a spectacular sequence, 21 cars were cleared off Daytona's 2.5-mile tri-oval, with Stewart's pirouetting and rolling through the smoke before landing on teammate Bobby Labonte's car, tearing the hood off the No. 18 Pontiac and causing the engine to burst into flame.

That Stewart suffered only a concussion and that no one else was seriously injured caused NASCAR to have its broadcast partner to trumpet about how a Winston Cup car was the safest racing car in the world.

But the drivers were worried.

"I could have told you that was going to happen before the green flag," said Jeff Gordon, who eventually returned to the race, keeping his mangled No. 24 Chevrolet on the apron of the track and out of the way of the competitors.

Ford drivers echoed the sentiment after the mess was cleared.

"I can't believe it didn't happen before that," Mark Martin said. "I really hope everybody is satisfied with that race. I feel like we have to entertain them and I hope that was enough entertainment to that point."

Said defending race champion Dale Jarrett: "I know that Dale Earnhardt said something about last year's racing -- that Bill France (Sr.) would be rolling over in his grave. I don't think this is what (France Sr.) had in mind, either.

"I'm sorry, but that's not racing. It may be a great show out there (for the grandstand), but, from a driver's perspective, that's not it. ... I mean, you're totally at the mercy of someone else when you get three-wide.

"That's not racing."

Lost his air

NASCAR was forced to stop the race to clear the track of debris spread out over the track but, when things went back to green, it seemed that the fans had been given everything they wanted. Plenty of lead changes, plenty of passing, three-wide and even some four-wide driving, a huge crash with no serious injuries and the Intimidator was in the mix, running interference for Michael Waltrip, who was added to Earnhardt's stable of Steve Park and Junior Earnhardt in December.

With Waltrip getting drafting help from Junior and Senior in third, blocking Sterling Marlin and anyone else who tried to pass, Waltrip had a clear run to break his 0-for-462 streak in NASCAR's Super Bowl.

As he approached the start/finish stripe, Earnhardt's car got squirrelly -- Waltrip and Junior continued on for a 1-2 finish as Marlin tapped Earnhardt into Kenny Schrader, who drove Earnhardt into the wall. It didn't appear to be that bad, until the paramedics arrived on the scene and quickly worked to remove Earnhardt from the car.

"Those kind are the most dangerous," said Bill Smyth, president of the United States Auto Club from 1970-74. Smyth was watching the race at his home, in Pompano, Fla., and feared the worse. "He got hit kind of sideways, which probably sent his head side-to-side."

Nothing could be done

Dr. Steve Bohannan, an emergency physician at nearby Halifax Hospital who serves the same purpose at Daytona International Speedway during the big motor sports events, was one of the first on the scene and quickly determined that nothing could be done for Earnhardt.

"He had what I felt were life-ending type injuries at the time of impact," Bohannan said at a televised media conference later. "Nothing could be done for him."

Asked whether a head-and-neck safety restraint device (HANS) would have possibly saved Earnhardt's life, Bohannan declined to speculate.

"I really don't know if that would have or not," Bohannan said. "That would be pure speculation, not knowing the exact cause of death."

Todd Parrott, Jarrett's crew chief, didn't agree.

"If Dale had that on, we'd probably be looking at a different situation," Parrott said to the Associated Press.

What to do

Chances are Earnhardt would not have worn the device unless mandated to. NASCAR has mostly stayed away from the HANS, only recommending drivers to consider the device, where Formula One has made it mandatory for its drivers to wear a HANS, and CART will make drivers wear the HANS when the series competes at ovals.

Which brings us back to the problem -- what should NASCAR say and do?

Hopefully, once it is clearly determined what the cause of death is, the sanctioning body will take a stand on HANS, or something similar, and look at other safety innovations available, such as softer walls.

But the problem isn't just in the technology.

Certainly, some of the problem the series faces comes from the drivers themselves, who have a certain fatalistic look at their sport. Earnhardt, for one, refused to wear a full helmet and wore an open one, which he believed allowed him greater vision and the ability to hear a car coming up on him. His son, Dale Jr., also wears an open-face helmet.

Until NASCAR's drivers decide that death need not be a part of the series, as F1, CART and Indy Racing League drivers have, little might get done.

The road NASCAR finds itself on is not an easy one. Perhaps, just as Senna's death polarized F1, Earnhardt's will do the same in NASCAR, getting its drivers and the sanctioning body to examine each series, from Winston Cup on down.