Earnhardt was running third on the final lap of the race, behind his own Dale Earnhardt Inc. drivers: Michael Waltrip (who would win) and Earnhardt's son Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who would finish second). In the closing moments of the race, Earnhardt appeared to be using his position to protect both his drivers from cars challenging behind him.
Contact initiated between Earnhardt's No. 3 Chevrolet and Sterling Marlin's car, and Earnhardt subsequently collided with Ken Schrader. The impact sent Earnhardt's car directly into the outside retaining wall on the entrance to turn four. The hit was near-head-on at high speed. Both Earnhardt's and Schrader's cars slid into the infield grass. Schrader climbed out; Earnhardt did not. Medical workers attended to Earnhardt in his car before he was transported to Halifax Medical Center.
An autopsy conducted on February 19, 2001 concluded that Earnhardt had sustained a fatal basilar skull fracture — an injury at the base of the skull consistent with high-deceleration impact. Public funeral services were held on February 22 at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina; Earnhardt was interred privately at his estate in Mooresville, North Carolina.
Several investigations were opened in the immediate aftermath. The Daytona Beach Police Department and NASCAR both examined the crash. NASCAR's public disclosure of nearly every detail was unusual for the era and was driven partly by intense media scrutiny and partly by allegations that Earnhardt's seatbelt had failed. The seatbelt allegations resulted in the resignation of Bill Simpson from the company bearing his name, which had manufactured the belts used in Earnhardt's car.
In October 2001, NASCAR mandated that all drivers in its three national series use the HANS device — a head-and-neck restraint that Earnhardt himself had declined to wear, finding it restrictive. The HANS device is now credited with preventing a category of basilar skull fractures similar to the one that killed Earnhardt. The mandate represented the most significant active safety intervention in NASCAR's history up to that time and was followed by a broader industry-wide adoption of the device in open-wheel and sports car racing as well.
NASCAR also accelerated work on softer barrier systems (SAFER barriers) for the walls at superspeedways, work that had been underway before Earnhardt's death but was given new urgency.
Richard Childress, Earnhardt's longtime car owner, pledged publicly that the number 3 would never again appear on a black car with GM Goodwrench sponsorship. Kevin Harvick, then a second-year Busch Series driver for Childress, was named as Earnhardt's replacement in the No. 3 beginning with the next race at North Carolina Speedway — just two weeks after Earnhardt's death. Three weeks after that, Harvick won his first Cup race at Atlanta.
Fans began marking the third lap of every race by holding three fingers aloft, a tribute that continued for years. Television coverage on Fox and NBC fell silent during each third lap throughout the following season. Earnhardt was inducted into the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.
Earnhardt's death is widely regarded as a watershed moment in motorsport safety culture. The shift it triggered — from an implicit acceptance of risk as inherent to racing to a structured, regulatory mandate for protective equipment — was felt not only in NASCAR but across virtually every form of closed-wheel racing. He had won 76 Winston Cup points races, seven championships, and the 1998 Daytona 500, the victory that had eluded him for 19 consecutive attempts.