Hi. Im rather new here. Although I read this forum for ages.
I usually post at TF but every discussion somehow ends up with CART vs. IRL, we are do(o)med or simply with an h
And posting there became pointless. So I decided to post this here. I imagined this discussion as pure theoretical and even philosophical.
The main question is why is NASCAR forcing this image of a married men driving racing cars? Prior to race you will usually see Kevin Harvick, Sam Hornish, Jeff Gordon and the likes hang around with their wives and kids. I always thought having a fammily is actually a huge burden to a racing driver. Thoughts about making an error that could turn their wife into widow and their children into orphans is a huge distraction for a racing driver. And Im not talking about distant history. Dan Wheldon's accident happened just few years ago. Bianchi's near fatal accident happened few months ago. And we also had Sean Edwards a year ago. So death is still a part of motor racing.
I'm really puzzeled by this nascar politics of portraying racing drivers as a family men. I remember when I was lets say 11. My worst fear was that something might happen to my father. I remember those days vividly. I remember everything about my father. The shoes he wore, his mustache, his voice, everything.
And yet. One Jacques Villeneuve when asked about his father -he simply replies that he doesn't even remember his father. I do not buy that. He is either lying because he does not want to be bothered with the topic that still hurts him. Or he went through such a shock that his brain simply erased Gilles from the system to protect Jacques from suffering.
Bottom line is when those nascar drivers kiss their wife before they climb into that racing car - are they aware that they just might kissed her for the last time. And that kid whom they let to play in the cockpit before the race might never see its father again.
Personally I think it is huge burden. I could never race under those circumstances. Yet more than half of the NASCAR field does.