Motor Sports: The simple truth about racing cars

Today, NASCAR reveals its much-anticipated report on the death of Dale Earnhardt.

There will be scientific data and tables showing how the impact of cars effects the drivers, and how those forces could be better absorbed with different designs and materials. There will be data showing how new equipment can help the drivers withstand the deadly forces seen in crashes.

These are all good things. They can make a very safe sport safer for the participants.

What will be forgotten in all this is the inherent danger in racing cars near 200 MPH. The drivers know it. They deal with it every day. Their families deal with it every day.

You can update, modernize, and accessorize the cars all you want, but in the end someone will still die racing. It's inevitable.

Dale Earnhardt knew it. So did Adam Petty, and Neil Bonnett, and Rodney Orr. People are going to die racing. It's a fact of the sport, just like people will get severely beaned in baseball and people will be paralyzed in football.

It's something that isn't talked about, but is always there, effecting every movement made on the track, diamond, or field. It's not a dirty little secret or an unexpected event when it happens. It's an underlying truth to the rules of the games. It's, very simply, a part of the life of these people and their families -- every day.

That's one reason I admire NASCAR drivers. Some may not call it a "real" sport. They may call it a left hand turn-athon. What they cannot deny is the courage it takes to get in these cars every Sunday, and lay their lives on the line to prove they are the best at what they do. I wouldn't do it. I probably wouldn't let my children do it. I enjoy the simulator and the computer games, but in real life...it's a "real" life.

So, let them show their science. Let them change the sport. I think it's great if we can improve the chances of drivers surviving crashes.

The roof flaps are a great example of that. I have seen maybe two cars flip over since they were instituted. That has been a great improvement and has helped avoid many terrific crashes (imagine every time you see the roof flaps go up if instead the car went airborne, backwards).

Just make sure you don't forget in all of this that people drive these cars, people with an unending amount of courage, and people who will, despite all of our best efforts, die doing the thing they love...racing.

Later...