Remember... Jason Leffler

This past Wednesday the tragic death of Jason Leffler rocked the racing world. I know it’s cliche but he truly died doing what he loved. It’s especially sad when something like this happens to someone trying to compete at the highest level. You assume a large risk when you step into any vehicle nevermind when you try and drive it as fast as possible, but at no point would something this bad cross his mind. It affects everyone involved in the sport and all the fans around. Nobody wants to see something like this happen. NASCAR has been the most proactive sport in general but especially when it comes to driver safety. They will figure out how to make sure this doesn’t happen again. But that does not ease the pain of what did in fact take place. The death of someone who flat out loved racing.

Jason Leffler was a pure racer at heart. Though he never won in the Sprint Cup series, he did grab a pole and a Top 10 in his career. He did however win twice in the Nationwide Series, first in Nashville and then at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, and also once in the Truck series at Dover. This year he made just a single start in the Cup series, last week at Pocono in the #19 Camry where he start and parked finishing 43rd. It would prove to be his final Cup race after he crashed while running 2nd with just a few laps remaining in a ⅝ mile dirt track race only to pass away later on Wednesday night due to severe trauma to his neck.

He was one of the guys that truly loves racing. While you can probably say that about most of these guys, very few race as often as they possibly can, think Tony Stewart. Those types of guys live to race and that’s why they race in these mostly unknown, obviously dangerous, dirt track races. You can see why they do when you watch a video like this one of Tony Stewart flying around a dirt track scaring the bejesus out of three time NASCAR Champion, Darrell Waltrip.

As funny as that video is there are two things that really pop out at me now that the Leffler tragedy has happened...

First at the 50 second mark a petrified DW said “Why would anyone in their right mind do this”

This is exactly what I had been thinking for as long as I have known this type of racing was around. These guys fly around a dirt track constantly on the verge of being out of control. While some of the Cup guys got started on dirt tracks most of the guys racing in these races are risking their lives for little to no recognition. So why do they do this?...

At the 2:40 mark after their run was over an exhausted DW said “I can’t believe you can do that” to which Stewart responded “It’s fun isn’t it”.

That’s why they do this. They do it because there are so few people that actually can do this and more importantly because “It’s fun”. They just love racing.

Leffler leaves behind a five year old son, Charlie Dean. His love of racing was matched by his love of being a father. He was a fierce competitor and the definition of a pure racer. He will be missed by all.

R.I.P.