Pete, very well said. I tried several times yesterday after you posted to respond and couldn't. I was on the phone with a friend back in N. Y. at the moment the accident happend and another friend was calling before Alex Lloyd's car had come to a stop. Like your family I was glued to the TV until the coverage went off praying for the best, knowing I had just witnessed one of the worst accidents in my 50 plus years of racing.

While our thoughts and prayers were with everyone involved, we were trying to keep our emotions in check while very concerned waiting to hear who was involved in the crash, hoping and praying Davey Hamilton wasn't in another serious crash. Davey has built a huge fan base and made a lot of friends in the Central New York area from racing supermodifieds at Oswego Speedway. An endless amount of time seemed to pass before the list of drivers involved was released and even longer before Davey was interviewed. Somewhere between the list of drivers names being released and them interviewing Davey my friend said to me you know a name could have been left off that list. She was reading my mind 2500 hundred miles away, I had that thought but could not say it out loud. By the time Davey was interviewed it was becoming clearer that Dan Weldon was the most seriously injured, at this point our emotions were not only focusing on Dan and the racing community but a Central N. Y. family that lost there son during a high school football game on Friday night.

We are wearing orange today with young Ridge Barden's #70 on our hands. My daughter Stephanie went to the Phoenix Central School District in Phoenix, N. Y., young Ridge was playing for the Phoenix High School team at the time of his death.

After the news of Dan's passing was released my friends started posting on facebook praying for Dan, his family, team members and fans. One of those friends also posted the news out of Central New York was reporting a 23 year old Tenth Mountain Division Soldier had died in Afghanistan. It wasn't until flying home from Syracuse thru Atlanta to Phoenix in January that I ever had a thought about my two small grandsons ever growing up and severing Our Country. On that flight I was delayed wiith a group of young men from the Tenth Mountain Division, I got to thank many of them for serving and once we were in the air I was seated around many of them. Since January when ever I hear of a Tenth Mountain Solider being lost I find myself asking did I meet that young man last January and praying for a family whoes lives have changed in a split second. Their son has been lost to them defending Our Country.

Why we do it could not only be asked about racing, why do we let our young children play sports, why do we let our sons and daughters join the military. You answered far better than I could Pete. The answer is because it is what we do.

Why did Our God need to call these three young men home this past weekend? I believe that is a question there is no answer for.

My thoughts and prayers are with all three families, Dan's race team, fans and friends.

Patti