Commend NASCAR

The Nov. 6 letter concerning NASCAR and IndyCar racing (“NASCAR, IndyCar need to increase safety”) alluded to the IndyCar tragedy at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 16.

There has been a tremendous amount of national media coverage of the incident. The coverage described the number of unique circumstances that were present at LVMS on Oct. 16. Those circumstances do not exist for Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series racing. More than 700 combined races in the two highest levels of NASCAR have been held after Feb. 19, 2001, without any fatalities.

There are a number of high school and college administrators across the country who dearly wish they could report zero deaths for student-athlete activities during even one year. NASCAR should be commended for its excellent safety record instead of labeling the racing as nothing more than some sort of cheap carnival activity.

Mike Mihelich

Coeur d’Alene