Episode 390 -- Firestorm Reaction -- Heartbreak in the Minutes, Hours and Days Following the 2001 Daytona 500

Episode 390 -- Firestorm Reaction -- Heartbreak in the Minutes, Hours and Days Following the 2001 Daytona 500

From The Scene Vault Podcast by Rick Houston

April 1, 2026 · 46 min

About this episode

Bambi Mattila shares her emotional experiences as a photographer during some of the darkest moments in NASCAR history, including the deaths of several drivers.

Before the HANS device. Before the safer barriers. Before NASCAR changed forever — there was someone standing at the fence with a camera, watching drivers die. Bambi Mattila was the staff photographer for Winston Cup Scene and between 2000 and 2001, she was on-site for some of the darkest moments in the sport's history: the deaths of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Blaise Alexander and Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500. This isn't the story the cameras showed you. This is what it felt like to be standing there. In this episode: What Bambi saw — and felt — in the moments after Adam Petty's accident at New Hampshire Why Kenny Irwin's crash left her furious: "I was so mad that nothing had changed." The chilling moment on pit road when she knew Dale Earnhardt wasn't coming back How she kept her composure on the outside while breaking down on the inside: "I'm just so sick of watching people die." Why Dale Earnhardt's death was the turning point — and what she would have done if NASCAR hadn't finally acted The role of the media community in processing collective grief — and the moment one reporter finally snapped About Bambi Mattila: Bambi served as staff photographer for Winston Cup…

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