"Editorial Response"
submitted by Linda Livingston

M.L. Morgan (referee)

One of our readers sent us this response to a recent editorial we did, Another Rule Change. She happened to agree with our position but that's not the only reason we used her letter. It is very well written and she is obviously a thinking race fan. Feel free to submit your thoughts - they don't have to agree with ours.

Hi Mike!

Excellent article! I agree 100%! That back-up driver deal is inane! Not only that, its extremely dangerous! If a driver's injuries are severe enough to warrant lining up a back-up driver he shouldn't get in the car at all. They're only going to drive 1 lap or until the first caution comes out. Yeah, right! Can you spell adrenaline? These guys have to be competitive to the max, tougher than nails and half crazy to even want to compete at the cup level. With the pleasant exception of Ernie Irvan, once those guys get in the car, its hell to get them out under any circumstances. What if the aspirin (or whatever analgesic/anesthetic NASCAR allows) suddenly wears off? What if the pain causes the injured driver to lose concentration or even consciousness? While an individual driver may feel driving injured is worth risking a more serious injury that might end his season, or even his career, I doubt any drivers collected in the resultant multi-car collision would agree. Maybe I'm way off base with this as I've never seen or heard anyone else express the same opinion. I just hope the scenario doesn't have to become reality in order for people to share my point of view!

Linda Livingston

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