They make most of their movements shrouded in secrecy. When they do talk to us, they do so with one hand behind their back.
"Show us what's in your hand," we say.
They don't.
They might wave the hand in front of us once, in the dark, with the fist still closed.
They might say there's a broken seat belt in there. They are NASCAR. They might say anything. More than likely, though, they will say nothing.
The death of Dale Earnhardt was a tragedy.
NASCAR's handling of the death of Dale Earnhardt is turning into another one.
If I hear one more NASCAR official drone on about how "safety is a continuing process," I think I'm going to scream.
Earnhardt deserves more than that. Fans deserve more. The drivers deserve more.
Humpy Wheeler, one of the most thoughtful men in NASCAR, happens to run Lowe's Motor Speedway. Wheeler has been quoted recently about how NASCAR is now standing trial because of Earnhardt's death.
If so, NASCAR needs a good lawyer. It needs a spokesman who will step from behind the veil and talk honestly about what's going on. So NASCAR is a private business so what? It has a huge customer base, and that base is what it relies on to become rich.
If enough people demand the truth, then the truth will eventually show up.
This isn't the 1960s, NASCAR. If a driver revolt comes, you can't crush it by putting replacement drivers in the cars and pretending like nothing happened.
The fans at the racetrack don't wear T-shirts and wave flags that say "NASCAR" on them. They support drivers. Gordon. Jarrett. Wallace. Labonte. Elliott. And, most of all, Earnhardt and now his son, Earnhardt Jr.
NASCAR officials waited five days to talk about the separated seat belt. The doctor NASCAR has provided to "answer" questions from the media has flip-flopped on his theories more than a pancake on a griddle.
The sport is establishing a research and development field office, in Dale Jarrett's old racing shop in Conover, N.C., and that's laudable but not quick enough.
Wheeler has been one of the few men courageous enough to speak openly against NASCAR in the 17 days since Earnhardt's death. He says the sport needs to be safer, that the threat of death must be eliminated.
That, unfortunately, is impossible. When you're going 180 mph, the threat of death can never totally be erased.
The drivers know that. But they also deserve to know more about every possible thing that may keep them alive. NASCAR's general excuse for bad luck, crashes and death the one it seems to encourage all of its drivers to adopt is, "Well, that's racin'."
That doesn't cut it anymore.
Why did Earnhardt really die? Did his chin hit the steering wheel and kill him after his final-lap Daytona 500 crash, or was he already dead by that point from whiplash?
These aren't easy questions. I don't think the answers will be found in Dale Earnhardt's autopsy photos. Widow Teresa Earnhardt doesn't want them released. The Orlando Sentinel does not for publication, but to have an expert study them. If a judge decides not to show the pictures to the newspaper, I wish he would appoint some outside experts to examine them.
What NASCAR needs is some outsiders with some power, who can talk openly about HANS devices, soft walls and seat belts without fear of being silenced or of having their paycheck sliced. A drivers' safety committee. An outside agency. A congressional inquiry. Something.
Because all we've got now is a dead legend. And a whole lot of questions.
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