If I said I knew Jason Leffler, that would be a lie, although I did get a chance to meet him once. He was polite,kind, and very much a gentlemen.
Lefturn as he was know by his friends seemed to be on the fast track several years ago to rank of Sprint Cup racing, coming from the ranks of open wheel racing, the same way Stewart, Gordon, and Newman made their way into the sport. Leffler had made it to cup in the FedEx ride for Joe Gibbs, however that deal went south just after 21 races.
But never daunted he continued on driving in the Nationwide series for Braun Racing as well as Kyle Busch Motorsports, however, bad luck seemed plagued him in those ventures.
Leffler persevered and continued to race going back to his roots in open wheel, where his career and life were cut short last night.
Now, I know I am taking the long way around the tree, but here is the point to this blog. All of us, who are around motorsports, no matter what level it is know there is danger involved in being around it. And we all know that sprint cars can be dangerous even deadly. Now don't get wound up, I am not calling for Sprint Car racing to be banned. Far from it.
What I am putting out there, is that it is time to look at how sprint cars are constructed and start bringing some innovation from other forms of motorsports to the table. Drag Racing, NASCAR, look at how those cars are built. Maybe a hi-bred type of funny car style roll cage along with a variation of a NASCAR type seat, in the drivers area. As a suggestion.
Sprint car chassis for the most part have not changed in 30 years. There are some minor things here and there, however, there has not been a radical change in chassis design since the down bar cars. From the photos I have seen of the car Jason Leffler drove last night, that thing was used up bad after the crash.
I am also not asking to go as far as the Silver Crown cars did years back, those things were hideous.
What I would like to see happen is we take something from Lefturn's accident, and find a positive and make a change to help make drivers safer. It should be done for not only those who race sprints locally but those on the national tours.It should be done for the drivers and for their families.
After Dale Sr's. accident at Daytona, NASCAR got on the stick and made changes to the rules, safety equipment, and eventually the cars themselves. It can be done, that is for sure, as long as people are motivated.
I feel it is what the sport owes a five year old little boy who loved his daddy very much and who's daddy loved him even more to be motivated; to look at making changes in sprint cars in the area of safety so it might keep what happened to Jason and Charlie from possibly happening again.
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| Jason and Charlie Leffler at Charlotte. |
