ARCA
Blaise Alexander killed at Charlotte
CONCORD, N.C. -- Blaise Alexander, the 25-year-old ARCA driver who also competed on NASCAR's Busch Series, was killed Thursday night in a wreck at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Alexander crashed head on into the turn four wall after talking the lead from ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
CONCORD, N.C. -- Blaise Alexander, the 25-year-old ARCA driver who also competed on NASCAR's Busch Series, was killed Thursday night in a wreck at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Alexander crashed head on into the turn four wall after talking the lead from Kerry Earnhardt. Alexander's rear bumper caught on Earhardt's front, and he cut down a tire.
His car then hit Earnhardt's again, flipping it and sending Earnhardt's Chevrolet hurtling down the track on its roof with flames shooting out from under the hood.
Alexander's car came to a rest on the infield grass. The 1996 ARCA rookie of the year had to be cut out of the car, was placed on a stretcher and rushed to the infield care center. He was pronounced dead from severe head injuries at 10:20 p.m. ET.
"It is with great sadness that we must report that Blaise Alexander died as a result of his injuries in tonight's accident," track spokesman Jerry Gappens said.
"It was a severe head injury. Our emergency technicians went to the car and found him unconscious, unresponsive and with no vital signs. They worked on him for 25 minutes and got no response."
Ty Norris, executive vice president for motorsports at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Kerry Earnhardt's spotter Thursday, said slower cars played a role.
"Kerry went into the corner with a five car-length lead and they ran up on all of that lapped traffic," Norris said. "He came off the corner and he was right there next to Blaise. There was nothing anybody could do, it was just the circumstance of having four cars vying for the same space coming off Turn 4. Blaise didn't have a choice and Kerry didn't have a choice."
ARCA President Ron Drager said Alexander had been wearing the required "horse collar," a foam device designed to restrict the movement of the driver's head in an accident. The collar was manufactured by Simpson Performance Products, and there was no apparent failure of the collar.
Alexander wasn't wearing any other head-and-neck restraint system.
Drager characterized the cause of the accident as a "violent deceleration" by Alexander's car.
Earnhardt was not injured in the crash.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Charlotte factsheet
Next article Lowe's RE/MAX results
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Dale Earnhardt
The most unexpected driver and team breakups in modern NASCAR Cup history
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
The most unexpected driver and team breakups in modern NASCAR Cup history
Dale Earnhardt's most memorable NASCAR Cup wins
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Daytona 500
Dale Earnhardt's most memorable NASCAR Cup wins
Waltrip relives gut-wrenching days after Earnhardt’s death: “I couldn't..."
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Talladega
Waltrip relives gut-wrenching days after Earnhardt’s death: “I couldn't..."
Latest news
Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
43 min
Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?
WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
2 h
WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
3 h
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Phoenix
7 h
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe