When do points take precedence over the rest of your life?
When you are injured, is doing well in a race more important than ensuring you don't permanently disable yourself?
Racing injured or sick has been the policy since NASCAR started. There are so few days off, that there is even less time to let an injury heal. Hurt on Sunday, test on Monday. Or Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Even if the driver doesn't get in the car, the likelihood that he is just laying in bed or sitting in the recliner relaxing is almost zilch. Going to the shop, participating in sponsor appearances all take up the free time of a perfectly healthy driver in any given week. Compound that with an injury and the driver is probably taking what should feel like an 8 hour day and turning it into the equivalent of having worked a 16 hour day.
Drivers have raced with broken collar bones, ribs, legs, fingers, and burns on their legs, necks, torsos, and heineys. Tony Stewart is just the latest in a long line of drivers that have had to choose between racing hurt -- or taking care of themselves -- and in turn letting someone race for them.
I didn't even know you could break the tip of your shoulder blade sitting in those custom molded seats, however this week alone I have heard Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. both talk about how hard it is to drive with that same exact injury. Both admitted it was probably one of the most painful injuries for a driver to sustain, because you can't really wrap it, and it is hard to protect it from bumping and jostling when sitting in the seat. Having been blessed with only breaking a toe or two, a finger, and displacing a hip, I can't even begin to imagine what the pain is from that kind of injury. However, you knew when Smoke didn't climb out of the car himself a week ago at Charlotte, that something must be hurt, and bad.
Common sense says to most people, if you are injured, let it heal. Then kick back, relax, and let Mother Nature heal that which is injured. Normal sense says that getting into a car to race at over 100 miles an hour when you have a bone broken in your body, is not going to be comfortable, or necessarily safe. A bone that incorrectly heals after being broken can lead to life long pain. Pain can lead to distraction and lack of quick reflexes. All of that can lead to the end of a racing career.
There is a lot of discussion as to when Smoke will get out of the car today. In order to get the drivers points, he has to take at least one green flag lap in the 20 car. Gibbs was lucky when they decided to look for a back-up driver. Last weekend they recruited Mike Bliss to stand by when Smoke initially bruised himself in the Busch race. Now that they had a week to search for someone, they found a gem. The Rooster, Ricky Rudd, just happened to be available. Is there any driver better qualified that is also available to drive the Home Depot car in Smoke's stead today?
David Whitley wrote an article this week for the Orlando Sentinel who compared the ability of Rudd to step in for Stewart to the ability of Jessica Alba to step in for Danica Patrick. Apparently, he has no idea about the history of NASCAR, much less the need for experience and skill needed to relieve an injured driver. He talks about stick and ball sports, where for example, "John Daly could smash a drive, cut his finger while popping open a beer and have Phil Mickelson finish his round." Seems a bit ludicrous, doesn't it? However, in baseball or football, you can easily replace an injured player with another and keep playing the game. Whitley seems to imply that a relief driver shouldn't be allowed to race in place of an injured driver.
What happens when a member of the driver’s crew is injured during a race? Do they pack up and leave? No. They bring in a replacement and finish the race. If you tell a driver that they can't bring in a relief driver, then they will race hurt. There is little to no question about that. If Michael Waltrips "rental" of a ride last weekend proved nothing, it proved the necessity of a team to have their sponsors name on the track every week. A sponsor pays millions of dollars to have their brand seen on the track. If a driver is hurt, and they aren't' allowed to put a replacement driver in their seat, their sponsor gets no exposure, and the money has to be returned. No driver wants to let their sponsor, or team down. If no relief is available, they will tough it out themselves.
Again, where is the common sense in that?
Discussion of who will drive the car, the other big question of the week has been -- would Smoke be in this situation if he had not runthe Busch race on Saturday? He hit the wall very hard in the Saturday night race, leading to his first trip to the hospital. Had he not been in that race, would the injury from Sunday’s accident have been as bad? This leads us back to the whole Bushwhacker question. If there was a limit on the number of races a Cup driver could race, would this have happened in the first place?
Sounds like a whole lot of "What ifs" if you ask me.
What is done is done, and I am sure no one is sorrier for the situation than Smoke himself. The rules state that if Smoke is injured and gets in his one lap, he can get out whenever he wants, let Ricky get in, and he can still walk away with the driver points. Hopefully, he will get out fast, go back to his RV, and relax as his doctor tells him to -- so that he can get back in the car on a full time basis -- sooner rather than later.
