BROOKLYN, Mich. Dave Blaney was watching at Bridgeport Speedway as Jason Leffler was killed when his 410 sprint car slammed into a wall twice.
It won't preclude Blaney from continuing to dabble in open-wheel racing while moonlighting from his full-time Sprint Cup ride in the No. 7 Chevrolet of Tommy Baldwin Racing.
When Blaney's NASCAR career is over, the champion of the World of Outlaws and USAC Silver Crown probably will return full time to racing's minor leagues.
"That's what I came from and that's where I learned how to race and grew up racing," Blaney said. "That's my first love. You do all you can do safety-wise and use your head, and that's about the extent of it."
Defending Cup champion Brad Keselowski cited safety as a primary reason he doesn't run short tracks very often.
"They don't have the safety standards that we have here in NASCAR," Keselowski said. "That's not to say that all tracks in NASCAR have it right, either. But it's even 100 times worse at the local level."
BLANEY: Believes part failure caused crash
BURTON: Leffler's death provides safety lessons
A sense of trepidation mixed with resignation permeated the garage Friday at Michigan International Speedway in the wake of the death of Leffler. New Jersey State Police said Friday they were still investigating the cause of Leffler's accident Wednesday at the 0.625-mile dirt oval in Swedesboro, N.J.
According to his team, Leffler was wearing a Simpson Hybrid head and neck restraint system, which is one of six approved for use in NASCAR. A blunt force injury occurs when an object strikes the body with force causing compression of tissue. Head and neck restraints are designed to prevent injuries resulting from deceleration trauma when the body is moving and strikes another moving or stationary object, causing stretching or tearing of body tissue.
Leffler's resilient personality and versatile grit made him popular and respected among peers while racing in all three of NASCAR's national series.
Those opportunities dried up this season for Leffler, 37, who responded by returning to his roots and racing sprint cars. The Long Beach native won three consecutive USAC Midget championships in 1997-99 before heading to stock cars in the footsteps of friend and mentor Tony Stewart, who provided a place for Leffler to stay for nearly a year when he moved to Indiana.
