Fear, faith and racing: How NASCAR began to heal in September 2001 – Nascar

As news of the attack unfolded, NASCAR officials tried to find out if anybody in the industry was hurt or killed, a daunting task considering the dearth of information, the collapse of cell phone communications and how spread out the sport was. Some NASCAR officials had remained in Richmond, Virginia, following the previous race, and others worked at various locations across the country, including at a test in Kansas. At the time, no links were found. But connections between NASCAR and the tragedy have emerged in the time since.

DENIS McGLYNN, then (and now) president of Dover International Speedway: My brother spent a lot of time in New York City. He was in the South Tower when all of this was going on, he and his business partner. When the first tower got hit, the alarms went off saying, evacuate. The South Tower that he was in, the PA came on and said everything was OK, they didn’t need to evacuate.

Everybody was still crowding to get into an elevator. He kind of got pushed in. His partner said, “I’m going to go back and get my computer.” The door shut. When (my brother) got down to the ground level and was exiting, the second plane hit the South Tower right above him and killed his partner.

RON THIEL, then Jeff Gordon’s spotter, now vice president for operations for Hotchkiss Sports Suspension: Long Island is where I grew up for 35 years of my life. I had a body shop on Long Island that I could see the skyline if I stood on the roof. That whole happening struck close to home. We had a few of our friends who lost family members in the towers who were New York City firemen. A friend of mine had an older brother who was killed.

DOUG BAWEL, then co-owner of Jasper Motorsports, now owner of Jasper Engines and Transmissions in Indiana: I was due in the Pentagon that night. I was to work all day (at the team’s shop) and that night I was having dinner with John Jumper, who was the Air Force chief of staff and a four-star general at the Pentagon. John made it (out), and the other people I knew there made it. I could have been there. Who knows what could have happened?

AL NELSON, then a truck driver for FitzBradshaw Racing, now drives AJ Allmendinger’s hauler: I was a fireman for 25 years up on Long Island with my brother and father. My younger brother, Peter, was in Rescue 4 (of the New York City Fire Department).

I tried calling, I tried calling, I tried calling. Can’t get through. We were all trying to call up there. The next night, I came home and said, “Dad, I think we better go up there. I don’t think this is very good. We can’t get ahold of anybody, we can’t talk to anybody.”

So we went. Somebody got through to my older brother and said that they found (Peter), that he lost his leg, but he’s OK. He’s alive. We went to bed that night thinking that was the worst. (But that was wrong). I had people in the hospitals. I had doctors. I had EMTs, there’s quite a network of people that work in my volunteer fire department that knew a lot of people and things going on. We couldn’t find (Peter).

We raced in Phoenix (five weeks later). The race was over. I’m getting ready to head home. I talked to my wife. She said they found him. They found his whole company. They were all together, right next to an elevator shaft, which is where they teach them to go in a collapse. They were all right there. But they were all dead.

I grew up with that kid. We’re two years apart. We grew up in the same bedroom. We played with the same group of kids. We played softball, we played football, we played everything together. He was a great kid to grow up with. I don’t know if this is how I justify it, or look at it, but if he had to go, that’s the way he wanted to go — the big job. He’s always been the first guy in, last guy out kind of guy.

BURTON: Jimmy Makar (then a crew chief for Bobby Labonte) knew some people in the (fire) department, so we went up (to New York City) to visit the fire house and the police station. Bobby Labonte, myself and Jimmy Makar went to (Ground Zero) with no media, no anything.

We were in this fire station. Osama Bin Laden was on the television. They were showing pictures of him. There was a fireman in there cooking. He started screaming at the TV, furious. He kind of demanded that we go see the site. He said people don’t realize. People don’t understand. TV doesn’t show it. We go to the site. That guy was right. TV didn’t do it justice. It was bigger, worse, every adjective you can imagine, it was worse than what TV showed.

I walked into a doughnut store, and I swear to God, it was like time stood still. The clock was stopped on the wall. There were inches of dust in the building. There were coffee cups with coffee in them, plates with doughnuts on them, half eaten food in this doughnut shop in the corner of this building.

One of the regrets of my life is not having images that I can share with people. You had no idea how big it was until you stepped foot on it. I stood there and cried.