You can’t help but be sick over the death of 2 time Indy 500 winner and 2005 Series champ Dan Wheldon. Words don’t begin to do it justice. One minute you’re watching one of the most respected and admired guys in his sport, the next he’s gone, leaving behind a wife and two young children. And it was a terrifying, sickening crazy wreck to see. Wade Cunningham and JR Hildebrand collided; setting off a chain reaction that included a total of 15 cars including Wheldon’s which went airborne before slamming into the catch fence.
Photos: Dan Wheldon
Look…, horrifying wrecks happen and these guys know the risks when they get into the car, and maybe it’s too soon to start asking the hard questions, but… could that wreck have been prevented? Were they not asking for trouble by slamming 34 cars, onto that track, most ever on an Indy car track outside of Indianapolis. The track was too flat, too smooth and too fast and the drivers themselves were concerned something like this might happen. Will Power, who was part of the accident, said Friday before the race, “this oval racing, when you are flat-out 100 percent, is kind of ridiculous.” And guys were going flat out. It was the final race of the season; Power and Dario Franchitti were fighting for the title and Wheldon was batting for a $5 million dollar promotional bonus. Driver Scott Dixon says factor all of that in and 34 cars running on a smaller track and you could almost see something like that coming: “it’s unfortunate because everybody knew it was going to happen. You could see from lap 2 people were driving nuts. It doesn’t even matter the speeds, you can’t touch with these cars.” You can’t, but in a race like that, with so much on the line, it was almost inevitable. Drivers were going to do what drivers do: take risks. And push the envelope. So it’s up to the sport to protect them from themselves. And I’m not sure it did yesterday in Las Vegas. (Dan Wheldon, Rest In Peace).
