Editing Neil Bonnett (section)

==Death==
Despite the setbacks, Bonnett was encouraged because he had secured a ride and sponsorship for at least five races in the 1994 season with car owner [[James Finch]], including the season-opening race, the Daytona 500, for [[Phoenix Racing (NASCAR team)|Phoenix Racing]]. But on February 11, 1994, during the first practice session for the [[1994 Daytona 500]], a shock mount broke, causing him to lose control of his Chevrolet on the track's high-banked fourth turn. The car swerved onto the track apron, and then up the steep bank, before crashing into the wall nearly head-on. Bonnett did not survive the accident; he was 47 years old.

That weekend, another racing death occurred, as 1993 Goody's Dash (four-cylinder) champion [[Rodney Orr]] was also killed in a racing crash during the practices surrounding the first weekend. In the middle of the second Goodyear-Hoosier tire war, Hoosier withdrew from the race immediately.  Five years later, the broken shock mounts became an issue again in NASCAR, as cars bottoming out were evident during the first night race at Daytona in 1998.  By 2000, NASCAR imposed a new rule where the sanctioning body built the shocks and had mandatory specification springs for the cars to prevent this tactic, to stop the dangerous tactics being used to reduce drag that led to the fatal crashes.

Bonnett is buried in [[Pleasant Grove, Alabama|Pleasant Grove]]'s cemetery, Forest Grove Memorial Gardens. A road called "Allison-Bonnett Memorial Drive" in his hometown honors him, along with fellow native [[Davey Allison]], who died seven months earlier.

When Earnhardt, Bonnett's colleague, won the [[1998 Daytona 500]], he dedicated the victory to Bonnett among others.

Earnhardt himself [[Death of Dale Earnhardt|died]] in a racing accident during the final lap of the [[2001 Daytona 500]]. About three weeks after the accident, magazine photographers released photographs of Bonnett's autopsy, as well as those of another driver who died a few days later, Rodney Orr, to the public, which led to a lawsuit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/earnhardt/052401.htm|title=Father of NASCAR crash victim Rodney Orr sues Web site over autopsy photos|last=Lyons|first=Andrew|date=May 24, 2001|publisher=[[The Daytona Beach News-Journal]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930185207/http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/earnhardt/052401.htm|archive-date=September 30, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

When [[Brad Keselowski]] scored Phoenix Racing's first Sprint Cup win 15 years later in the [[2009 Aaron's 499]] at [[Talladega Superspeedway]], Finch dedicated the win to Bonnett. During the [[2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series|2013 season]], Finch designed the No. 51 car's paint scheme in the Cup and Nationwide Series like Bonnett's 1994 [[Country Time]] [[Chevrolet]] that he drove shortly before his death.