Daniel R Varin

Smokescreen Daniel R Varin

In August of 2014, a car driven by NASCAR's Tony Stewart struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. while racing sprint cars at Canandaigua Speedway in Upstate New York. Smokescreen is a eye-witness account of the accident. It is targeted toward fans of car racing and people with an interest in current events involving celebrities. On August 9th, 2014 I was enjoying one of my best runs in a 360 sprint car - until directly in front of me, the unthinkable happened. Driving the race car directly behind Tony Stewart, I had a firsthand view of the impact that took the life of Kevin Ward, Jr.. What I wasn't prepared for was the difficulty I would have in making sense of it all and just getting on with my life. I knew that I needed to do something in order to find the same sense of normalcy that my life had before I witnessed the accident. That 'something' was a self-imposed therapeutic exercise of recording everything I could remember about the accident. While trying to work things out in my mind, I became increasingly disgusted with how the media sensationalized the accident, rather than simply reporting the facts as they became available. This disquiet continued later when, as a Grand Jury witness, I was further perplexed by the judicial process where, at least from my point of view, rather than it being an objective search for truth it seemed the verdict was pre-decided and everyone was merely going through the motions. Intentionally divided into 13 chapters as a dedication to the memory of Kevin, Smokescreen is an inside look at sprint car racing: what happened on that race day and how sometimes racers are their own worst enemy. The book follows me from my childhood, growing up the son of a local racer to driving a race car for the first time to 'walking in mile in Tony Stewart's shoes'. In each chapter I tell some anecdotes, drawing parallels to people and things related to the accident and the surrounding media storm. The most difficult admission I make is that at any moment I could be either Tony Stewart - the driver of a car involved in a fatal accident, or Kevin Ward Jr. - the driver so enraged with what had happened that he put himself directly in harm's way. This is a must read for all race fans along with anyone longing to know the true inside story. ADD TO YOUR CART NOW!!!!