A man of courage

David Smith is not only an old friend of mine, he is an important friend of mine.

He is important for many reasons: our friendship has endured for 20 years, we have many memories together, he is there for me through thick and thin and, best of all, I can count on him to pray for me.

Friends who pray for you are the best friends.

For 26 years, David worked for another of my dear friends, Richard Childress, the renowned NASCAR car owner who, with Dale Earnhardt, won six championships. David, in fact, was Earnhardt’s crew chief at one point, though when I first met David, he was one of the over-the-wall guys.

I don’t think there’s anything much braver than a man who will jump over the wall with jack in hand as an aggressive driver like Earnhardt speeds toward him on pit road.

But David, I now know, is braver than I even thought.

Based on principle and Christian commitment, David resigned from Richard Childress Racing. I was saddened to know that two of my good friends had parted after years of triumph and tragedy. David, along with a few others, was the core of RCR, the ones who stayed loyal and stayed put. In a world where employees move constantly, David and others stayed with Childress because RC is a man who treats others well.

But when Childress took advantage of NASCAR’s new policy to permit hard liquor sponsors and signed a contract with Jack Daniels, David respectfully told his employer that he would have to go. As a Christian, he couldn’t work in an environment supported in part by dollars from alcohol. Once upon a time, David could drug and drink with the best of them.

“I was a good sinner,” I’ve heard him say often. But when he accepted salvation well over 20 years ago, he gave it all up. He didn’t condemn others for what they did, he just quietly lived his life and expressed his views sincerely but not in an overbearing way.

During the years that I moved across the country with that traveling Cup series, I would always hang out on the 3 truck on rainy days. Many times, I’ve stepped on the hauler to find Earnhardt dozing in a hammock that he had strung across the back, Childress hosting a card game and David, laying on the floor, head propped up by his jacket, reading the New Testament.

When David changed his life, he changed it with a full, unyielding zest and devotion that has not wavered over all these years. He turned away from alcohol and drugs and never looked back.

“It was a demon that possessed my life for way too long,” he once said to me.

So, because of his moral conviction, he gave up a good job of 26 years, one with terrific benefits and great salary, without another job waiting in the wings. And, because the Childress team is headquartered outside of Winston-Salem, N.C., while the other top teams are in Charlotte, David knew that staying in racing would mean uprooting his family and moving.

Still, he followed his conscience, shook hands with the man he still calls a good friend and, sadly, left a place filled with a lifetime of memories.

If you had asked me before, if I knew how brave David Smith was, I would have said, “Absolutely! I’ve watched him run out in front of Dale Earnhardt’s race car! You can’t be braver than that!”

Or, so I thought.