As Race Fans, We Take So Much For Granted

No matter what racing series they are in, each and every driver takes the greatest of risks when they strap themselves into their car on race day. Their family and loved ones watch, anxious, that they don’t pay the ultimate price in such a hazardous profession. The second the green flag waves leaves room for anything to go wrong. All it takes is the simplest of errors to cause a tragedy. Many racers across many series have lost their lives doing what they love the most. Last Sunday, the IZOD IndyCar Series lost one of its biggest stars, two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon.

The loss is one that hit home for so many people. In fact, it hit home for more than just the IndyCar community. The entire racing community was stunned by his tragic passing. On Sunday, nobody watched the IndyCar drivers get into their cars knowing that it would be the last race Dan Wheldon would run. Nobody even expected that such a horrific incident would occur. A day that was supposed to end in triumph with a champion being crowned turned into a day that left the racing community trying to comprehend how a life could be cut short so unexpectedly.

No, I’m not about to start talking about changes that could be made to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. And I’m not going to point fingers or go over hypothetical what-if scenarios.

Instead, I want to talk about how what happened Sunday should open our eyes as fans of such a dangerous sport.


When it comes to NASCAR, I feel we’ve been desensitized to the fact a driver can lose their life in a race. The NASCAR community hasn’t faced that kind of tragedy in years due to the safety measures that are now in place. Sure, we’ve seen some bad crashes over the past few years such as Carl Edwards getting airborne at Talladega in April 2009, the crash involving David Ragan and David Reutimann at Watkins Glen that left Reutimann’s car going airborne in June of this year, and most recently, the hard hit that Jimmie Johnson took Saturday night during the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Thanks to the HANS device, the SAFER barriers, and many other safety features that NASCAR has mandated, the drivers were able to walk away with no serious injuries.
We take it for granted that if our favorite driver doesn’t win the race, then they’ll get the win next time. Sunday taught us that that may not be the case. There may not be a next time. So, this is my request for all of you race fans.

No matter who your favorite driver(s) is(are), cheer for them during driver introductions if you’re at the track. Don’t be afraid to show your support. Stand up and cheer as though your driver just took the lead when they gain a position during a race, even if they only moved from last to second to last. Applaud the pit crew when they make flawless stops. Cheer the crew chief when he makes a split second decision that sends the team to victory lane.

If you call yourself a fan of a driver, it shouldn’t matter in the end where they finished. All that should matter is they did finish the race and will be racing again the next time around. Now, it’s okay to be upset when your driver doesn’t get the finish you think they might have deserved. Just don’t forget the picture. Things can look grim for your favorite driver, but things could always be so much worse. If your driver does crash during a race, don’t get mad he won’t get a good finish. Be thankful if they walked away from it. Don’t ever let the negativity overshadow the fact they survived the crash.

Now, I know every race fan has that one driver they pull for above all the others, and there are some drivers they dislike. Then there are the drivers that we aren’t exactly fans of, but we don’t dislike them either. They kind of fall into a neutral category. I’ve noticed that’s the case for many of the drivers who drive for the underfunded teams. Drivers like J.J. Yeley, David Gilliland, Joe Nemecheck, and Michael McDowell just to name a few.

The underfunded drivers normally don’t get the loudest crowd reaction during driver introductions. Personally, I cheer for those guys too during intros if I’m at the track. I encourage you all to do the same next time you’re at the track. Cheer for every driver because you just never know if that could be the last time you will see them walk across the stage.
After a race, if you have the chance, find some way to show your favorite driver(s) that you’re proud of them no matter where they finished. I’m very active on Facebook and Twitter so I always try to send a message to each driver I cheer for after a race to let them know just how proud I am of them for the hard work they put into finishing the race. I’m not a fan who takes any race for granted, though. Not anymore.

I treat every race as though it could be my favorite drivers’ last. Why? Because I know that there’s always the chance it very well could be. Do I want to believe it? No, I don’t. But I accept that reality because last year, I was witness to a crash that truly opened my eyes to the dangers
involved in auto racing.

Last March, I was in the stands at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Scotts 300 and after that race, they had a race that included NASCAR legends such as David Pearson, Larry Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Charlie Glotzbach, and more. First, during the Scotts 300, there was the big wreck in turn two involving Colin Braun and Steven Wallace. Braun, who slowed down to avoid hitting Brian Scott after he had spun, was hit from behind by Wallace. The contact caused Braun’s car to spin, lift up, and land with the right side on the left side of Wallace’s car. The two cars, locked together, slid down the high-banked turn on fire. By that time, my heart was in my throat. Luckily, both drivers were okay.

It was what Bristol referred to as the legends race following that Nationwide Series race that I finally came to terms with the fact drivers can and will get seriously hurt if a crash is bad enough. I don’t even remember what lap it happened on. All I know is when it did happen, I honestly believed I had just watched someone die. Larry Pearson spun coming off of turn two, and Charlie Glotzbach could not avoid him. Glotzbach hit Pearson square on the left side. It was like something out of a Hollywood film. The sound of squealing tires drowned out all other sounds. Sheetmetal flew everywhere. I had never been witness to anything like that at Bristol. Glotzbach, who was injured, was taken to the care center immediately.

The impact initially knocked Pearson out. The second his car came to a stop, Nationwide Series pit crew members (I can’t remember whose team they were from) leaped over the pit road wall and ran to Pearson’s car before the safety crews had even made a move. I watched, frozen, as a stunned silence fell over the track. Minutes passed by painstakingly slow, and I stood in the stands wondering if I was going to see a miraculous survivor pulled from the wreckage or if I had just witnessed the ultimate tragedy in racing. My cousin Gauge, who was five-years-old at the time, was with me that day. I’ll never forget when he pulled on the hem of my shirt and motioned for me to lean down so he could whisper to me. With such innocent eyes, he looked at me and quietly asked, “Is that man dead? Is that why they haven’t gotten him out of the car yet?” It was then that I prayed harder than I already was that Pearson was okay. I hated to think that my cousin’s first time at the racetrack would end with him knowing he had watched a man die.

Even when Pearson was extricated from the car and laid on the stretcher, I still wasn’t sure if he was alive. Heavy silence blanketed the track, and the track announcer wasn’t saying much. Then, just as the stretcher was being loaded into the ambulance, I saw it…. Pearson’s left arm raised in an attempt to let the crowd know he was alive. Applause erupted from the fans still in attendance when the realization sank in that Pearson was okay. Well, ‘okay’ being a relative term at that point.

Sure, I know the cars Pearson and Glotzbach were driving that day did not have all the safety measures that NASCAR stock cars have, but that is beside the point. My point is that a bad crash like that can happen when you least expect it.

Every fan has a driver (or multiple drivers) that they really do not like. It is just part of what being a race fan is about. There are some fans out there who will say they hope the driver they don’t like crashes. Then there are the fans who joke about drivers who seem to be accident prone on a weekly basis. That bothers me, but that isn’t what really gets me.

It’s the fans who cheer when a crash happens that get me.

I was at Charlotte on Saturday night for the Bank of America 500 when Jimmie Johnson crashed coming off turn two. The impact was one of the hardest I’ve seen at that track in a while. The sheer speed at which he hit the wall caused the back tires of Johnson’s car to lift off the ground.
When it happened, I jumped up, my heart racing, and hoped that he was okay.

All the while, so many of the fans around me, who had made it clear from the start of the race they did not like Johnson, were on their feet cheering when he spun out. Then they were still cheering when he hit the wall. I just looked around at all the fans cheering the wreck and wondered how they would feel if he had been seriously injured in that crash.

If there is anything I hope you take from reading this blog post it’s that you should never cheer when a crash happens. That crash could claim the life of a driver, or multiple drivers depending on the severity of it. Whether or not you dislike a driver involved in the crash should not matter. The bottom line is that a driver could lose their life in that very second. So, to those of you who cheer when your least favorite driver is involved in a crash, I ask that you take a second to think about that. Would you want to look back later and know that you had cheered a person’s death? I know I wouldn’t.

We don’t like to think of the fact drivers can lose their lives during a race, but that thought haunts the furthest corners of our minds every weekend we watch them climb into their cars. It’s always there, waiting to come to light when tragedy strikes like it did on Sunday evening. In the end, we never know when it could happen. All we know is it can and sometimes will happen.

Just before Sunday’s IndyCar broadcast ended, Marty Reid signed off by saying ‎"Many people ask me why I always sign off 'Till we meet again.' Because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye, Dan Wheldon."

Indeed. Goodbye is final. Godspeed, Dan Wheldon. You will be missed. My sincerest condolences go out to his family, his loved ones, and everyone in the IndyCar community. May God watch over them and guide them through this darkest of times.

And may we all never again take any race for granted. You just never know when you’ll be left saying goodbye to one of your racing heroes.