For Lex Joon, NHRA Top Fuel drag racing is ultra-important: it’s what motivated him to leave most of his possessions and his familiar way of life to move 4,200 miles from Zandaam, The Netherlands, to Brownsburg, Ind.

The U.S. government granted him and wife Gerda green cards as "aliens of extraordinary ability." But while waiting to be assigned Social Security numbers, they lived a severely Spartan life: no electricity or gas, no car registration, no insurance, and no phone, Internet, or television. Until they had Social Security numbers, they were unable to seek jobs, so the Joons existed for weeks on the $2,000 Lex had in his pocket.

As committed as Joon is to drag racing, he’s equally committed to making a difference in his adopted community. He calls his adventure the “American Dream Tour” – and said he always will call it that – but he recognizes that for too many people, life has become an American Nightmare.

A Top Fuel race usually is over within four seconds. In less time, lives have been lost or shattered because of ignorance of or carelessness with guns, especially when children are involved. The concept of children being anywhere near firearms was startling to Joon, and he wanted to do his part to raise awareness about child safety. So at the recent U.S. Nationals, the 2005 FIA European Top Fuel champion and 2007 and 2008 runner-up carried the banner of Project ChildSafe on his dragster.

Project ChildSafe is a program of the National Shooting Sports Foundation to promote firearms safety and education. It works with law enforcement to distribute safety education messages and free firearm safety kits throughout the U.S.

“I believe in good causes. People need to be helped. I hate it when I see those small children and guns. I’m not used to that, you know. In Europe, we don’t have things like that,” Joon said. He said he’d be happy “when we can protect our children – and basically their parents, because a lot of times stuff happens because kids three years old, they got a gun and they just shoot and they don’t know what they’re doing. Things like that are really important, no matter what. I’m at a point in life that I’m giving back, too, whatever is needed. Of course I cannot do it all, but you know, I see certain things going.”

Being exposed to the gun culture was an eye-opener for Joon, but he said he wanted to educate himself.

“I never, ever had a gun in my hand in my life,” he said. “A friend of mine, he owns a lot of them. He said, ‘Do you want to try it?’ I said, ‘You know what, I need to know what it is.’ So we went to a [shooting] range, and he gave me a gun. And I shoot it, and he said I did really good . But I was literally blown away how easy it is to pull a trigger. I never knew it was that easy just to do this and kill somebody, basically, or do somebody harm.

“So when I found that out, I was looking and I need to see if I can do something with this to find a way to help. And then around here in Indianapolis, you read a lot about small kids that find a gun in the glove compartment of a car, things like that. We need to work on that,” Joon said. “You only need to save one life and it’s already worth it. Things like that are really important. So no matter what I do, I know we can make a difference here.”

ChildSafe was the initiative that Joon discovered could be a solution to the problem.

“What they do is they try to make awareness, put safety in place so gun owners are aware of the fact that if they own a gun or a rifle they need to protect their environment,” he said. “So, for instance, they provide locks. They just give them away so you’re able to lock your gun. They work with law enforcement to educate people.”

The U.S. Nationals, where Joon was unable to qualify for the Top Fuel field, is the first race at which ChildSafe appeared on his car.

“The plan is to go to races and to get law enforcement in there and give seminars. But NHRA’s doing, a lot of times you see buses full of school kids coming to a race,” he said, referring to the Y.E.S. (Youth and Education Services) Program, that’s where I want to be to educate them about gun safety, also their parents. That’s what a lot of it’s about. I like that. That’s good. That’s a good cause.

“I try to put things together. There are a lot of companies out there and they have a lot of marketing budgets, so if we can get some of them to make the world a better place . . . You know, if they pay me to put a name on the car, and we can at the same time give back to good causes, that’s what I’m looking for.”

Joon was entered to compete at this weekend’s Dodge Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway but has decided to skip the race and make preparations for the race in St.Louis.

So when can we see Ashley Sanford back in the seat of a Top Fuel dragster? She says hopefully sooner rather than later. https://t.co/oE5yBJZlut

— Competition Plus (@competitionplus) September 10, 2018