The Tragedy at Canandaigua on Saturday night in a short track sprint car race could have been avoided. But the culture that is NASCAR, the rivalries, the infighting, the confrontations on and off the track finally played out in the horror that cost a young driver, Kevin Ward Jr., his life and Tony Stewart, a veteran race car driver with a reputation of being a hothead, perhaps his career. It has left NASCAR and auto racing with important lessons to be learned. The question is, will they? Can a culture that encourages and even revels in drivers and pit crews actually coming to blows and battles involving several tons of metal hurtling down a track at obscenely high rates of speed be changed? Only time will tell. In the meantime we are left with the tragic consequences of Stupidity. Nothing more, nothing less. And life lost because of it.
