Lessons learned from an atypical 15-year-old
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Marty Smith
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By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
October 1, 2001
10:42 AM EDT (1442 GMT)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was rendered speechless, but the wide-eyed vivacity of a remarkable adolescent mind reduced me to a babbling mess Sunday morning.
Simply put, I was so moved by the poise and sincerity of a 15-year old kid that I was prompted to peer deep within my soul and view aspects of myself I never knew existed.
Matt Dahl is a lanky young man with designer glasses, an ear-to-ear grin full of braces and an engaging intellectualism befitting someone 10 years his senior. But I knew none of that as I entered the Kansas Speedway grounds. He could've walked up and kicked me square in the hindquarters and I wouldn't have known it was him.
Sure, I'd written deep, heartfelt words about Dahl twice already, but hadn't yet spoken to him in person. No one had, minus Kathy Boyd, a super-sweet lady who as head of the Jeff Gordon Foundation was the spearhead behind Matt's dream meeting with his lifelong hero, three-time Winston Cup champion and registered good guy Jeff Gordon.
So anyway, as I began the brief stroll from the media center to Gordon's transporter, industry types galore inquiring about the young man intersected my path. They wanted every detail. This was national news, man, and as I stood under a gorgeous sun-drenched sky in the Sunflower State, I found myself as nervous as I'd ever been in my professional life.
Why though? My stomach was overtaken with butterflies, but I couldn't figure out what the hell for. This was a 15-year-old kid, for God's sake. I'd interviewed hundreds of people, but this one was completely different.
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Jason Dahl
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I'll tell you why. Matt Dahl has been through more heartache and tragedy in the past six months than most of us experience in a lifetime, and I didn't know what to say to him. What do you say to a teenager who tragically lost his father only two weeks before? How do you approach a kid who would probably be so reserved you'd have to pry answers out of him?
Like Marty Smith, I assumed. For some reason, I was the only media outlet given the honor to speak with Matt, so I figured I'd approach it like I was hanging out with one of my buddies. Talk racing, I thought. That always seems to provide a conversational bridge between two different worlds.
Bingo.
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Jeff Gordon talks with Matt Dahl (center) and Rick Hendrick (right) before the Protection One 400.
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Within seconds of meeting him, I knew he was special. His smile was contagious, his words poignant and profound. By the time our 30-minute meeting concluded, he'd given me a new perspective on coping with life's setbacks, be they as miniscule as a spilled cup of coffee or as large as the tragic loss of a loved one.
Sadly, Dahl knows such loss all too well. As you all probably know by now, his father Jason Dahl piloted United Airlines Flight 93 the day it crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field, the result of a terrorist attack during the Sept. 11 attack on America.
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Matt Dahl sat in the pre-race drivers' meeting.
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Most kids his age wouldn't know how to express themselves, much less express the collective mindset of a nation. Matt did it, as eloquently as President Bush ever could. Never could I have imagined the words of a 15-year-old could make me look at myself, and my country, so differently.
His excitement in meeting Gordon, Bobby Labonte and 41 other Winston Cup stars was readily evident, and we discussed that for some 25 minutes. It was the other five minutes, when my tape recorder was off and we discussed his true feelings about the hand he was dealt, that hit me like a runaway Mack truck.
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Bobby Labonte
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I promised Matt, his family and Kathy that anything he said pertaining to the tragedy would remain unwritten. Out of respect for the most remarkable young man I've ever met, I will adhere to that wish until the day I die.
It's just as well, folks. I was so amazed by this kid I was rendered speechless anyway.
As I departed Kansas Speedway Sunday afternoon, I noticed a sign that proudly boasted the Kansas state motto. When I saw it, my eyes filled up with tears so thick I could hardly see the road.
"To the stars through difficulty."
That, my friends, is an absolutely perfect summary of this story.
Marty Smith's column appears weekly on NASCAR.com and the opinions listed here are solely those of the writer. To provide feedback to Marty, write him at marty.smith@turner.com.
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