NHRA Tragedy

[Anonymous]

Yesterday at the NHRA's tour stop in Madison, Illinois, the driver of the only Top Fuel dragster on the tour from Pennsylvania, Darrell Russell, of the Joe Amato Keystone Auto Bilstein DeeZee Racing team, was killed in an eliminations race. He had just been edged out at the finish line by Scott Kalitta when something happened that shredded a tire at an estimated speed of 322 mph, and he then slammed into the barriers alongside the track. He was Lifeflighted to a St. Louis hospital unconscious but breathing, but succumbed to his injuries within a couple hours. The team, from Old Forge, Pa., was one of the truly class acts on the circuit. Former Champ Joe Amato will now I'm sure take some races off to grieve and regroup. Ironically, they had just won their first race of the season two weeks ago at Columbus, Ohio and last week at Englishtown, NJ, had qualified as the No. 1 car. Darrell Russell was from Texas, and will be greatly missed by anyone whose life he somehow touched. This was the first NHRA fatality since 1996's death of Blaine Johnson. May they rest in the hands of the Almighty.

[BisonBlue07]

Yea, my uncle told me about it right after it happened and that's just a dang shame. God be with him and his wife through this tragic time.