What Happened To Racers?

What happened to racers?

By: Pete MacDonald

As I stood in the infield of Bridgeport Speedway on Sunday looking at Twitter on my phone and saw that Erik Jones was replacing Denny Hamlin because Denny was complaining of neck spasms, I thought to myself, When did race car drivers turn into such babies?

What happened to the days when guys like Dale Earnhardt were called “One Tough Customer” after Earnhardt and Tim Richmond tangled in turn one at Pocono leaving Earnhardt with a broken leg only to tell people to keep it quiet so he can race the next week. Fast Forward to 1996 when Dale tumbles through the tri-oval at Talladega leaving him with a broken collarbone, sternum, and shoulder blade, what did he do two weeks later? He sat on the pole at Watkins Glen in a very John Wayne like performance coming home seventh after leading the most laps. In 1999 during the March Atlanta race, Dale would hit the wall flush with the left side rupturing a disk in his neck leaving a sliver of bone jammed in a nerve. Dale would race the remainder of the 1999 season in pain just so he can keep racing.

Or how about Ricky Rudd, who flipped violently in the Busch Clash at Daytona in 1984, the next day was Daytona 500 qualifying, Rudd woke up only to find out that his eyes were swollen shut, so what does Rudd do? He duct-taped his eyes open so he can see so he can go out and race. Rudd would also admit later on that his equilibrium would be thrown off and as soon as he went off into a corner he would get dizzy.  Another example of how tough Rudd was, was from Martinsville 1998 when Rudd’s cool air box had faulted on a day where you can fry an egg on the pavement also some of the crush panels were knocked out of the car and carbon monoxide leaked into the car throughout the day. Rudd went on to win that day and conducted Victory Lane interviews while hooked up to an oxygen mask.

Even if you were to ask Richard Petty, he will tell you that a good amount of his 200 career wins he should have never ever been in a race car due to being injured.

Or for the “newer” generation of NASCAR fans Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced nearly an entire season in 2002 with “concussion like symptoms” after suffering a hard crash at Auto Club Speedway in California.

I’m sure if you were to ask Tony Stewart when he suffered a compound fracture in his leg after a Sprint Car crash in Iowa if he was able to start the next race that weekend, he would have done everything in his power to do so.

I guess there is a “new breed” of racer in 2015. Not that it’s a big deal but I raced with cellulitis in my leg in 2012 just cause that’s me, I wanted to race. It just seems that our sport is going more main stream and no longer has room for the gritty good ole’ boy mentality anymore. Maybe that’s what our sport needs?

What do you think? Are racers turning into babies more and more? I can be emailed at racersguide@gmail.com or found on Twitter @PMacDonald51, Thanks!

Images Courtesy: NASCAR/Getty Images