Dillon wreck adds to Daytona lore

It seems convenient, almost to a fault, that the last-lap wreck at the Coke Zero 400 could be blamed on the late hour. It was almost 3 a.m. when Austin Dillon went for a terrifying ride into the catch fence at the end of the front stretch.

Remarkably, Dillon walked away after landing on the roof of his No. 3 Chevrolet, and no fans were seriously hurt. 

For Dale Earnhardt Jr., thoughts of celebrating his second win of 2015 were quickly subdued when he saw what was happening in his rear view mirror. There was good reason.

After the crash involving Kyle Larson happened at the 2013 Daytona Nationwide race that saw 30 fans injured by flying debris from the No. 42, Sunday night's wreck was on that level.

Even with the late hour, everyone was able to thank their lucky stars things didn't turn out worse than they did.

It's scary enough when 3,400 pounds of driver and machine get airborne at 200 mph, but the perfect picture that left the most lasting positive memory came when Earnhardt's pit crew was first to reach Dillon to see if he was OK. 

After what happened Feb. 18, 2001, the motivation to do whatever was necessary to keep everyone safe is as strong as ever.

Restrictor plate racing is a fact of life at Daytona these days. Speed is what drives everyone, but speed without safety is asking for trouble.

Dale Earnhardt is up on heaven's best race track right now. NASCAR has to keep moving forward to improve safety so no one has to report on another racing accident that takes a driver's life for a long time to come.

The families of Dan Wheldon, Adam Petty, Eric Medlen and Scott Kalitta can certainly relate.

Tom Zulewski has covered racing in many forms over an 18-year writing career. Follow him on Twitter @Tomzsports.