Ed Hinton - Death of Dale Earnhardt

Death of Dale Earnhardt

On February 18, 2001, NASCAR driver and long-time friend of Hinton, Dale Earnhardt, was killed on the final turn of the Daytona 500. Hinton and the Sentinel suspected that, like Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty, Earnhardt's cause of death had been basilar skull fracture (Hinton had recently published a three-part series on the subject of NASCAR safety) and claimed that under Florida law, the state was legally required to turn over Earnhardt's autopsy photographs. Teresa Earnhardt and others claimed the newspaper could not have access to the photographs, leading to a First Amendment legal battle which was finally concluded by an official NASCAR report on Earnhardt's death.