SPENCER: How We Cope

Sprint Cup

SPENCER: How We Cope

Dan Wheldon's death forced every driver to confront just how dangerous their profession is...

Jimmy Spencer | Posted October 18, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Team members line the pitlane as the drivers complete five memorial laps to honor Dan Wheldon, driver of the No.77 Dallara Honda, who died of injuries in a massive fifteen car crash during the Las Vegas Indy 300. (Photo: Getty Images)

As hard as it may be to understand, the IndyCar Series drivers climbing back in their race cars for a five-lap tribute to Dan Wheldon after his passing was announced on Sunday may have been the best thing for them.

For the most part, racing is the way racers heal from tragedy. It’s always been that way. It’s how we cope.

When Dale Earnhardt died in 2001, NASCAR went to Rockingham the next Friday. I was still driving at the time and remember how painful that weekend was without him. But we all knew Dale would have kicked our asses if we hadn’t gone on. It was tough but we leaned on each other and tried to move on.

Getting back to work helped us heal. We all had a job to do the rest of that season, but there wasn’t a race or a day when Dale wasn’t on our minds. By the same token, Dan Wheldon will be on the minds of each of those IndyCar drivers when they get to the first race of the 2012 season and every day for the rest of their lives. As a former driver, I think it may even have been more healing and therapeutic for those guys to race next week, but unfortunately, Las Vegas was their season finale and it will be several months before they’re all back in a race car together.

I’m sure that getting in the car for that five-lap salute was incredibly difficult for each one of them, despite how well or how little they knew Dan. Many of them probably were reflecting on his unbelievable win in the Indianapolis 500 last May and how ironic that last lap now seems. They may have been looking back to chatting with him in driver introductions a few minutes prior. And who wouldn’t be thinking about his wife and two little children?

But when it comes time to really race at full speed, drivers temporarily block out tragedies like this one. You have to. I competed in a few races that drivers were killed in and I remember having to focus on the car and the race the next time I was behind the wheel. You’ve got to keep yourself focused because you certainly don’t want your emotions to overtake you and cause you to make a mistake behind the wheel that risks the life of another competitor. All 100 percent of your attention has to be on that race track.

As a competitor, you know death is a possibility but you don’t think about it because the minute you do, it’s time to retire and quit driving. If you drive in fear of getting injured or killed, you probably aren’t driving as safely as you otherwise would be. That may sound odd, but if you’re holding something back and driving reservedly because of what could happen, you’re likely to cause another driver to run over you and cause an accident. So, you let all those fears go when that helmet goes on, you block out whatever may be bothering you, and you think about nothing but that race and race track for the next few hours.

For the sake of Dan’s fans and fellow competitors, I wish Las Vegas hadn’t been their final race of the year. I wish IndyCar had another event on the schedule this weekend that would allow them all to come together, honor Dan in some special way and then strap back into their race cars. I think that’s what most of those drivers need. But they won’t get it. Their season ends on that horribly gut-wrenching note.

Getting back on the track also is what the series needs. My heart goes out to the IndyCar Series because they’ve had a rough go of it lately. They made a big splash with the $5 million promotion and they had a nice championship battle on their hands between two stellar car owners. But disaster struck and devastated everyone involved.

Dan’s death forced every driver to confront just how dangerous their profession is. I think we often take the safety of the sport for granted because neither NASCAR nor IndyCar has had a fatal accident in so long. But the reality of how inherently dangerous racing is hit home hard on Sunday afternoon and likely reawakened those deep-down fears in most of the drivers. Each one will deal with Dan’s death in his or her own way, but you can bet that not a single driver will take a single green flag next season without thinking about the competitor they lost last weekend. The challenge, though, will be racing through that grief and focusing on the task at hand.

But that’s what racers do. And that’s what Dan would have wanted.

I can’t close without expressing my disgust with the “ambulance chasers” who have come out this week. I’ve heard from so many different media outlets wanting to interview me about Dan’s death, but the problem I have with these requests is they’re coming from media outlets who do not cover racing the rest of the year. Where were these guys when IndyCar arrived in Las Vegas for their championship weekend? Where were they when something positive happened in the series during the course of the season? The practice of covering racing only when someone dies makes me sick. It shows disrespect for our sport, our fans, and most importantly, the ones we lost.

Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it on NASCAR Race Hub on SPEED. He retired from driving with two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 12 NASCAR Nationwide and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, putting him in an elite group of drivers who have logged wins in all three of NASCAR’s premier divisions. In 478 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Spencer amassed 28 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes. He won back-to-back NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships in 1986 and 1987 on the heels of 15 victories, becoming the first driver ever to earn consecutive titles in the series. He earned the nickname “Mr. Excitement” for his flamboyant and aggressive driving style early in his racing career.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jimmy Spencer

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