Off the Beaten Path, but on the Right Track

Bill Plaschke’s column on auto racing in the South [“Culture Shock,� Feb. 25] is another masterpiece from one of the best sportswriters in the country today. Plaschke’s language is elegant, his writing poetic. For a sports fan like myself who doesn’t follow auto racing and who also was somewhat baffled by the overwhelming emotional response to Dale Earnhardt’s death, Plaschke’s column eloquently provides a deep and revealing portrait of the cultural context of auto racing fanaticism.

DARRIN HURWITZ

Washington