It’s a sad state of affairs when the national news media (or even the local and regional media for matter) will only recognize the very existence of the sport of drag racing when there’s a “shock and awe” moment that comes at the painful expense of another. But that’s exactly the whirlwind ride that second generation racer Lizzy Musi is on this week after her harrowing ride on Friday night at the ADRL Springs Drags III in Bristol, Tenn.

The video of her accident, which was filmed by ADRL videographer Grinner Hester and nearly took Hester himself out in the melee, was released on the web on Saturday and is quickly nearing one million views on YouTube. In addition, it was shown on Yahoo!, Fox News, USA Today, and countless other media sources. This comes just a week after the media latched onto the ESPN footage of Matt Hagan’s explosion in Charlotte last weekend.

This morning, the 21-year old Musi, the daughter of legendary drag racer Pat Musi, was invited into the FOX News studios to discuss the incident and her racing career on the “America’s Newsroom” program. Despite her misfortune, Musi composed herself well in front of the cameras that piped her interview out to a global audience. In addition to the interview, footage of the incident was shown from previously unseen camera angles, where you can get a better grasp for how close Hester came to being hit by the out-of-control Camaro before he dove onto the racing surface.

Any media attention of this magnitude is a positive thing for our sport, but we’d certainly like to see our stars in the national spotlight for more positive reasons than negative ones.