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In the mournful days, weeks and months after February 18, 2001, NASCAR was faced with a challenge unlike any it had ever faced. It had to fill the massive void left by the death of its most popular and influential driver. And it had to assure similar tragedies would not occur again.

A popular narrative suggests the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. saved countless other lives. It was frequently raised this past February, on the 20th anniversary of his fatal accident on the final lap of the Daytona 500, the last fatality suffered at NASCAR’s highest level. That notion somehow makes the death a little easier to accept, as if adding martyrdom to Earnhardt’s legacy.