I'm sorry. I can't help it.

Eric Medlen made me laugh.

All he really had to do was flash that trademark grin that spread instinctively, almost involuntarily, from ear to ear.

Did Eric Medlen ever get up on the wrong side of the bed? If he did, we never knew about it. And if we did, he made us forget about whatever was troubling us. All anyone had to do was see Eric Medlen at the race track or anywhere else, and his happy spirit was contagious.

So when his Funny Car slammed violently into the guardwall at Gainesville Raceway during testing March 19 and he never regained consciousness, the scenario was all the more contradictory. No -- no, this is Eric Medlen, one of the most beloved drag racers ever.

I'm sorry. I can't help it.

Eric Medlen made me laugh.

All he really had to do was flash that trademark grin that spread instinctively, almost involuntarily, from ear to ear.

Did Eric Medlen ever get up on the wrong side of the bed? If he did, we never knew about it. And if we did, he made us forget about whatever was troubling us. All anyone had to do was see Eric Medlen at the race track or anywhere else, and his happy spirit was contagious.

So when his Funny Car slammed violently into the guardwall at Gainesville Raceway during testing March 19 and he never regained consciousness, the scenario was all the more contradictory. No -- no, this is Eric Medlen, one of the most beloved drag racers ever.

That might sound too corny or people might think they're too tough to say that out loud. But it's true. We loved Eric, because he made us all feel good.

C'mon -- If you had been in the Wal-Mart in San Antonio back in the winter of 2004, before Medlen even went to his first preseason test session, you would have laughed at his spontaneous behavior. Boss John Force was the big draw at the store's grand opening, and Medlen got a little bored, just watching hundreds of fans fawn on Force. So he wandered around the store, offering his own hero card to shoppers who didn't know him from a load of coal. "He was chasing people down the aisles," Force said, clearly amused.

No telling what would pop out of his mouth in conversation. One day in the pits, he started talking about the Garden of Eden. "Eric, what does that have to do with drag racing?" someone asked. "I have no idea, but I'll make up something," Medlen said.

When he qualified No. 1 at Englishtown in his rookie season, he was so excited that he told one reporter, "Want me to write your story for you? I'll write everybody's story! They'll all be the same but they'll all be good!"

The night before he earned that first No. 1 qualifying position, he had the tentative honor but cautioned, "We were almost No. 1 in Pomona, but John Force took it from us on the last day. I told him that I thought he should have been nice to the new guy. And he reminded me that he was being nice by letting me drive in the first place."

Medlen was so much like Force in his casual, chatty way -- sometimes forgetting the subject but always spinning an entertaining story -- that when someone referred to him as "Junior," people thought of the Funny Car icon rather than Medlen's own father, John.

But the two Medlens unmistakably were on the same page. "We're more than just father and son. We're best buddies. My dad was my buddy when I was just a kid. I was with him everywhere," Eric said. "We always dreamed about racing stuff together. And we got our chance before, with the boats. I made my own little toy wooden one, and I'd go out in the lake and play with it when he was racing. I always thought I was being part of it."

As Tony Pedregon said, "John Medlen raised a unique and special son."

Yes, and Eric Medlen loved his father, said he was "the one guy you always wanted to impress and never disrespect." Then, in typical Eric style, he said, "I don't think he's had to get the belt out yet. He's been leaving it on his pants."

Even when he was trying to be serious, Eric Medlen was funny. Complimenting teammate Ashley Force, he said, “She is as cool as it gets. If anybody is the Iceman, it's her."

John Force, though, said Eric Medlen was a cool customer. In 2003, he let Medlen drive his Funny Car at a match race at Norwalk, Ohio. "I was totally amazed that he got in the car, came right out of the box and even had the steering wheel come right off in his hand but he kept everything under control, got the 'chutes out and stopped and I said, 'Wow. That looked fairly simple.' He had the heart, he was loyal, he was my right arm in the clutch department. He suited me in the car. We became friends and he had the motivation to give me a win, so I knew it was in his heart."

Calm? Medlen might not have agreed. "After driving that thing, you're just a wild man!" he said of the Funny Car. "Your excitement level is out of control! I was just in it and I thought,' Man, I need to sit down. I just need to calm down.' "

But one thing Medlen agreed about: being successful in this business is all about heart. That's what he noticed about John Force. "He's a guy who deals from his heart, and thrives off of emotion, and throughout the years that's something that I've always wanted to do," Medlen said. "He's just a big personality, and I think that's one of the things that has got him to where he is, because he doesn't try to make everybody love him. They just do because he's himself."

The same can be said for Medlen.

Pro Stock legend Warren Johnson saw it. “Eric was one of the fans' favorites, and we’ve lost him way too soon," he said. “I always enjoyed his interviews at the top end. Not only did he have something pretty interesting to say, but he always conveyed an incredible level of excitement, which the fans really picked up on. He was just a neat kid."

That's how we want to keep Eric Medlen in our hearts. We don't want to remember Eric Medlen for a helicopter flight out of Gainesville Raceway or a week in a coma at Shands at the University of Florida medical center. We don't want to associate him with terms such as "diffuse axonal injury" and "cranjectomy" and "uncontrollable intracranial pressure."

We want to remember that he made us smile and laugh and feel like whatever happens, life is a gift.

Top Fuel driver Brandon Bernstein, who with Medlen's death has lost two dear friends since last October, put it correctly: "There's a big empty space."

But Bill Cosby said, "Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it."

Because Eric so loved being involved in his father's activities, beginning their boat-racing days, it seems appropriate to share Henry Van Dyke's "Parable of Immortality":

"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!'

"Gone where? Gone from my sight ... that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, 'There she goes!' there are other eyes watching her coming and their voices ready to take up the glad shouts: 'Here she comes!"

Godspeed, Eric Medlen.