DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --The names stir memories of some of racing's greatest moments: Fireball Roberts, Bill Vukovich, Jim Clark, Rex Mays, Ayrton Senna, Jochen Rindt, Mark Donohue.

And now, Dale Earnhardt.

All were stars in their chosen form of racing. All were killed in the sport they loved.

Earnhardt, a seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion, died Sunday on the last turn of the last lap of the Daytona 500.

Racing is inherently a dangerous sport, and nothing proves it better than the number of drivers who were established stars when they died on the track.

In the world of stock cars, Glenn "Fireball" Roberts was the Earnhardt of his era. Roberts was only 35 when fatally injured in 1965 in a fiery crash in Charlotte, N.C.

Ten years earlier, Vukovich was trying to become the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 three years in a row. He was leading again when a car slid into his path, sending Vukovich's open-wheel machine over the wall and killing him.

In less than nine years on the Formula One circuit, Clark won 25 of 72 races he entered and two world championships. But his life ended with a 1968 crash in a Formula Two event at the high-speed Hockenheim course in Germany.

Mays was a four-time pole winner at Indy, a record that stood for 27 years. He was killed in 1949 at age 36 when his wheel got caught in a rut during a race in Del Mar, Calif.

The 34-year-old Senna already had claimed three Formula One titles and was perhaps the most popular driver in the world when his car veered off the track at Imola, Italy, during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. He smashed into a concrete wall at 186 mph and died a few hours later.

Rindt was Formula One's only posthumous champion. He died in 1970 while practicing for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but he had built up enough points to claim the title. Rindt had decided to retire at the end of the season after the death of a close racing friend in a wreck that year.

Donohue was one of the America's most versatile drivers, a two-time U.S. road racing champion and winner of the 1972 Indy 500. He was killed while practicing for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix.