There is a quote attributed to Ernest Hemmingway which claims, "There are but three true sports -- bullfighting, mountain climbing, and motor-racing. The rest are merely games." Whether it be baseball, football, or hockey, all sports involve a certain amount of risk. But the three mentioned in the previous quote are different. Unlike other stick-and-ball sports, when a race car driver straps into his seat and rolls off the starting grid, there is a very high likelihood that he may not roll back down pit lane when the checkers wave.
This cold, hard fact was brought back to the forefront of the minds of race fans everywhere Wednesday night when Jason Leffler was taken from us much too soon due to a horrific wreck at New Jersey's Bridgeport Speedway. The former USAC champion known simply as "LEFturn" was running second in a heat race when his car hit the wall and rolled several times. Leffler was airlifted to an area hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. An autopsy would later reveal that a blunt force neck injury was the cause of death. Leffler was only 37-years-old.
I, like many others, had seen through Twitter that Leffler had been injured in a dirt racing accident and assumed he would be out a few races and then back again once he had recovered. I was also in the group that refused to believe that that same wreck had, in fact, claimed Leffler's life, dismissing it as a news outlet merely trying to get ahead on a story in a "Dewey defeats Truman" moment. But as more networks picked up the story, the cold, shocking, and confusing reality of what had taken place began to set in.
The advancements made to keep drivers safe that NASCAR has pioneered in recent years are a Godsend. But while they have made our sport that much safer, it will never be "safe." As long as race cars can break 200 mph there is a risk that they might blow a tire or bump another car or experience a part failure and then hit the outside retaining wall or a competitor's car. Hard. Until the laws of physics are revised, this will always be the case. Even with the modern safety advances in the Sprint Cup Series, we saw Denny Hamlin miss several weeks after a hard wreck at Auto Club Speedway left him with a compression fracture in his vertebrae. Take away the safer car and HANS Device and God only knows how that wreck could have ended. Race fans are fortunate in that they only have to endure tragedies like this but once in a blue moon. But racing is still not fair, nor will it ever be, and the sport we all love so much can sometimes break our hearts.
Race car drivers have a unique relationship with death. They flirt with it whenever they climb behind the wheel and, even after tragedies like the one Wednesday night, they still believe that the same fate simply cannot befall them.While others would cringe at the idea of strapping into an 800 horsepower missile and driving it inches from 42 other 800 horsepower missiles on a weekly basis, men like Leffler sign up and assume the risk because it is something that they love to do. As legendary NASCAR broadcaster Ken Squire put it, "these are common men doing uncommon things." Many drivers will run on dirt tracks and in late model races on their days off from their "day jobs" in NASCAR. Names like Kahne, Stewart, Reutimann, Blaney, Yeley, Busch, Wallace, Crafton and Sauter all race in their free time because it is in their DNA. Leffler was without a full-time NASCAR ride this season, so he returned to the dirt racing that had allowed him to make his name in the first place. Racing was what he loved and lived to do. He loved speed, he loved competition and he loved winning.
But more than that perhaps, Leffler loved his 5-year-old son, Charlie Dean. And Charlie, in turn, love his father more than anything. Telling a 5-year-old boy that his father is not coming home from the race track is something that no mother should ever have to do. While many fans lost a favorite driver, Charlie Dean lost his best friend, his hero, an his father all at once. That kind of loss is simply unfathomable, unspeakable and intolerable. There are no words that can possibly describe that type of sadness. Undoubtedly the biggest tragedy in the wake of last night's accident is that Charlie's father was taken from him in the prime of his life and that his father will not be able to watch him grow into a young man.
But if there is any good news that can be taken from this horrific event, it is that new ways to make dirt racing safer may come about as a result of Leffler's tragic passing. Social media has also shown the true heat of the NASCAR community. Multiple fans on Twitter are eagerly awaiting the arrangement of a trust fund so that they can donate to help the Leffler family, show that they care about Charlie Dean and show how much they loved his father. Every fan has a driver that they love and every fan has a driver that they love to hate. But it is during times like this that fans set all that aside and we are simply one community of NASCAR fans. Because our heroes drive race cars. Sometimes they win, and sometimes they lose. And sometimes, they don't come back at all.
On Sunday, there will be a race at the Michigan International Speedway. While we are still mourning, the roar of the engines, the whine of the air guns changing tires and the cheers of the fans in the stands will be nothing but therapeutic. Because racers race, no matter what. And on Sunday, 43 drivers will do so in memory of one of their own; gone much, much too soon.
Godspeed Jason Leffler. Rest in peace.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race,
I have kept the faith.
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown which the Lord,
the Righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day.
2 Timothy 4:7,8
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