New Jersey State Police are trying to determined what caused the crash that killed NASCAR driver Jason Leffler Wednesday night.
Leffler, 37, died after crashing during the first heat of a New Jersey's Bridgeport Speedway, a dirt track about 20 miles from Philadelphia. Leffler was running in second place when his car slammed into the wall at Turn 4.
Chris Taitt, a spectator, described the vehicle as "flattened like a pancake."
Leffler,has won twice on NASCAR's Nationwide Series as well as finished in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, two of car racing's signature events.
Apart from a last-place finish in Sunday's NASCAR race at Pocono, he had spent most of 2013 racing on dirt tracks this past season.
"You get people like Jason that lost his opportunity, and he's still racing, giving everything he can to get back where he wanted to be," said veteran driver Jeff Burton, on his SiriusXM NASCAR radio show. "It's important to note he's following a dream. He's doing what he wants to do. He didn't sit back and cry about not having a great ride this year. He went sprint car racing. That's a great quality in a guy and shows how much passion he has about the sport."
Tony Stewart, who considers Leffler more a friend than a competitor, says that their mutual love for open-wheel racing was a common bond they shared.
"Jason Leffler was a great racer and an even better friend," Stewart said in a statement from Stewart-Haas Racing. "We raced together a lot, and our career paths were very similar. He loved racing, especially open-wheel racing, and that's a passion we both share. To not have him around to talk about whatever race one of us had just run, or were going to run, will be hard."
Flags at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., were flown at half-mast Thursday in honor of the driver. Leffler, 37, leaves behind a 5-year-old son, Charlie Dean.