Voices From the Heartland: “Professional Drivers” vs. the Rest of Us

I read this the other day and it really pissed me off.

“That automobile in his hands was like a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon. Not a knife in the hands of a 5-year-old.”

That was the argument that Kyle Busch’s lawyer, Cliff Homesley, gave as he was defending the impetuous NASCAR driver for doing 128 mph in a 45-mph zone in a residential area this last May. Homesley went on to call Busch “one of the best drivers in the world” and said, “He had full control of that vehicle at all times.”

Really?! That’s the best that Busch’s lawyer can do?

Full Throttle: Kyle Busch Faces the Music

Yes, NASCAR drivers are very good at what they do, but that is their job. They go really fast and do it in a very controlled environment, the likes of which even an ordinary plastic bottle is often cause for grave concern! Give me a freaking break!

Yes, millions upon millions of us in the real world are usually only going about half the speed of the “professionals” but consider this; we do it every stinking day! There are no SAFER barriers on our roads, only concrete walls, other vehicles, ditches and trees.

We are not out and amongst the same 50 or so same drivers every week whom we might get to know the habits of; no, we are out there with strangers. Teenagers just learning, tired truckers driving 80,000-lb rigs, old seniors doing barely 50 mph providing the ‘moving chicane, drunk people who are “OK to drive, honest,” just to name a few.

You want a diversity program? In the real world, we got people from every country you can name and some you can’t out there driving. We got illegals, legals transporting illegals, foreigners who drive on the whole other side of the road in their home country!

A “caution” for us is a construction zone. We slow down and gawk when one of our fellow competitors “bites the big one” and splatters him/herself and/or others on the pavement and it makes us ANNOYED, but then we resume our DAILY race.

Yeah, lots of us die out there every year, and many more are injured, but does that change the fact that you have to get to work in the morning? NO! When we have trouble, we’re on our own. There’s no pit crew coming to the immediate rescue. Better have a good AAA plan and a few hours to spare!

We do this EVERY DAY! Not just on a Saturday or Sunday for a couple of hours. We are out here with hundreds of potential idiots (are you one?) at any given time and, unlike the closed ranks of racing, you never know who it might be.

Look, I’m not bashing Kyle Busch here, just the idiotic statements and thinking of his lawyer. Famous racers, just by the sheer demand of fame, drive on the “real streets” a lot less than the average fan does! So, given all the factors, who’s the professional now?

It takes more guts to drive through any major city’s rush hour than it does to go in circles on a “closed course.” The Gordons, Buschs, Edwards, Earnhardts, y’alls out of your element when you come join the rest of us in our race! This is the REAL world.

And, speaking of surgeons, why do you think the cost of malpractice insurance is so high?

Man! I hate lawyers!

Stay off the wall (and outta my way in the morning!)

Jeff Meyer