Do All NASCAR Drivers Go to Heaven?

Do all NASCAR drivers go to Heaven?

That’s one of the questions we’ll be talking about this week in our Sunday School class. Yes, in our Sunday School class.

We use a series, The Wired Word, in which we apply scripture to current events.

Anyway, with all of the recent NASCAR news - 20-year-old Trevor Bayne winning in Daytona and Jeff Gordon finally getting back in Victory Lane in Phoenix - I started thinking about the first time I attended a race. It was, as any South Carolinian might guess, at Darlington.

Ah, Darlington. Sometimes referred to as “The Lady in Black” and as “The Track to Tough to Tame,” Darlington’s egg-shaped raceway is legendary.

And that’s where I took my three children years ago as we experienced our first-ever live, in-person NASCAR race. The four of us were so excited – for a while.

For one thing, nobody ever told me to take earplugs. You think it sometimes gets loud in a football stadium? That’s not even close to loud compared to the stands at Darlington.

And nobody ever told me how to dress for one of these sporting events. There IS a dress code, even if it’s not in writing. You know how folks really dress up to go to the Carolina Cup and to other horse races, like the Kentucky Derby and such? Well, you do NOT dress “up” for the races at Darlington, although I believe shirt and shoes are required.

We arrived at the “Track Too Tough to Tame” all crisp and clean.

By the time we left “The Lady in Black,” I was another lady in black. We all were filthy. Where did all of that black stuff come from? It covered our clothes, our hair, our bodies. It must have been that so-called “bear grease sealant” they use on the tracks or the rubber burned off the tires.

(When my much younger sister Lorri was “Miss Southern 500,” she didn’t have to worry about getting dirty in the high-falutin’ section where she was stationed.)

NASCAR’s greats have prevailed at Darlington: Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Bill Elliott, Fireball Roberts, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Jeff Gordon and more.

I don’t know if all NASCAR drivers go to Heaven, but I know they all go to Darlington.

Some would say that’s one and the same.


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