It is not NASCAR, but Niki Lauda died Yesterday. Niki Lauda is one of Auto Racing's all legends with him with him being a 3 time Formula 1 championship. If people talk about great 1970s to mid 1980s great drivers in Auto Racing, his name is pretty high up there along with being one of the toughest drivers ever.
He won 2 of his 3 champions before I was born. While Niki was born in a wealthy family, he did follow what his parents expected in terms of a having of a comfortable life. Niki wanted to race. F1 back in the 1970s was a dangerous era to my understanding.
Niki died at the age of 70, but he was very lucky to live that long considering what happened to him when he was 27 years old. I am referring to this although it does not show the whole thing:
The stunning about this is Niki won 2 championships after that despite that incident. He also almost won the 1976 championship despite missing a month due to that crash and was only 1 point away from being tied for the championship. How Niki finished 2nd in points 1976 was he returned to racing during the 1976 season after missing 2 races due to that near death crash.
Niki suffered extensive scares from burns to head, weakened left lungs, lost more of right ear, lost all hair on right side due to fire, and lost eyelids. His burns were 3rd degree. The eyelids were reconstructed, but nothing else. He was offered plastic surgery due to how bad he looked after the crash, but he refused despite the wealth he he had.
As far as his death. It is safe to say that the crash had something to do with it because he got a lung transplant in 2018 and had multiple kidney transplants in his life.
. This rule package needs to be scrapped after this season is over. Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch has complained about the rule package.
.
