Dan Wheldon Dead @33

[NEW.ERA]

I don't really have any words to describe this picture.

RIP Dan Wheldon

Brings a tear to my eye.

[RedSox44]

It's a shame Dan was a great driver, 2 time 500 winner, RoTY, even a series championship. This is a sad day not just for indy car, but racing in general. I know with the race being close between Dario & Will along with Danica's last race, this wasn't a way that I don't think anyone would want it to end. I managed to find the 5 lap memorial they did for Dan, truly heartbreaking...

R.I.P. Dan Wheldon you truly were gone too soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RycU_YwdKrU

Beautiful salute to an icon of the sport.

[JH42XCC]

R.I.P. Dan Wheldon

[vicfurth]

RIP

[bosrs1]

This is the "Car of Tomorrow" for open wheel guys.

And you can see exactly why today's tragedy wouldn't have happened with that car. Cunningham wouldn't have had his wing clip Hinchcliff's tire causing his swerving which set the whole thing off.

[pmoehrin]

This is the "Car of Tomorrow" for open wheel guys.

And you can see exactly why today's tragedy wouldn't have happened with that car. Cunningham wouldn't have had his wing clip Hinchcliff's tire causing his swerving which set the whole thing off.

I'm just amazed things like this don't happen more often and its entirely due to the safety technology that has been developed over the years.

Even so though, it is damn near impossible to get a human body thats traveling at speeds of over 200 mph to just stop and not cause any damage to the body.

Its just unfortunate that the saftey technology just wasn't enough this time and the best thing that can come of this I'd say is to use this crash as an example to prevent future tragedies like this in the future.

[DelayedPenalty]

I watched the coverage from the time the crash happened until they signed off just hoping and praying that the news would be positive. I've been a fan of auto racing since I was a little boy. I've been around racetracks my entire life, watching thousands of races on television. Seeing the tarp over Wheldon's car (which is standard in most crashes, just to keep the parts together on the wrecker) had an ominous feel to it, and the chopper started up, but no sense of urgency to get him to it gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach.

When they made the announcement I cried. Not even ashamed to admit it. I cried for Dan, for his family, for his two young boys, for his friends at and away from the track, and for racing in general. IndyCar and the entire racing world lost a great man, a great husband, a great father, and a great champion.

The irony that he was killed in the final race of this version of the car is not lost. Hopefully the work he did testing the safer car of tomorrow will prevent another tragedy like this from happening.

I have an autographed picture of Dan in my office (along with my cast of characters). It's hard to look at today, but I'll never forget him.

RIP Dan.

[epper]

Devastating, tragic loss for the sport. I really liked Dan Wheldon. He was a refreshing face a series full of boring personalities and was never afraid to ruffle a few feathers. Just seemed like a cool dude. A guy I'd love to go for a beer with. When I was watching this past Indy 500 with the crazy Hilldebrand-final-lap-crash, I was devastated for JR but took a little solace that it was Dan who capitalized. And he had literally just signed a contract to go back to Andretti Autosport, where he won the '05 title and had the potential to get back on top of the sport for a long time. Truly sad. Even worse that he had a wife and two little guys.

Now, all this being said, I wish I could say "I can't believe this happened". Indycar races on 1.5 mile speedways are ticking timebombs. You simply cannot place 20+ (and in this case 34) cars on a narrow track like that at 230mph+ and go flat out for 2 hours without the potential for this. You have to create an opportunity for the drivers to lift off the gas (which is why Indianapolis still works), and spread themselves out. On high-banked places like Texas, Charlotte, Vegas, Chicago etc, crashes like this with cars vaulting into the air are inevitable. Simply put, these are NASCAR tracks. The catch fences are fine for cars with fenders but when an Indycar gets airborne, the fences are, for lack of a better term, giant cheese graters. Remember Kenny Brack's crash at Texas a few years ago? I'd say for the sheer single car magnitude it looked even worse than Wheldon's, but miraculously Brack survived.

Even Dario Franchitti, the greatest driver this series has ever seen, agrees:

“I said before this is not a suitable track,” four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti of the Ganassi team said after the accident. “You can't get away from anybody — one small mistake and you have a massive wreck.”

I hope Indycar gets their heads on their head on straight and rethinks going to these types of tracks. The late-to-mid 90s CART series did it well: an even mix of road, street and short ovals, plus Indianapolis. It's such a shame that American open-wheel racing has come to this. It's turned into a spec series where drivers with money and no talent buy their way into rides and have no idea what the hell they're doing. I mean look who triggered this melee: James Hinchcliffe? Wade Cunningham? Charlie Kimball? Pippa Mann? C'mon.

I love open-wheel. It's always been my first love in auto racing, even though my interest in it in recent years has waned compared to NASCAR. The first racing event I ever went to was the '95 Indy 500 Pole day when I was 9 years old. Greg Moore's crash was the start of the decline, and I had that same sinking feeling yesterday. I truly hope this next-gen car re-ignites my interest, but sadly I can just see more and more of the top drivers leaving the series to go stockcar racing, where the money and safety is.

RIP Dan. You truly will be missed.

[/rant]

[bosrs1]

Devastating, tragic loss for the sport. I really liked Dan Wheldon. He was a refreshing face a series full of boring personalities and was never afraid to ruffle a few feathers. Just seemed like a cool dude. A guy I'd love to go for a beer with. When I was watching this past Indy 500 with the crazy Hilldebrand-final-lap-crash, I was devastated for JR but took a little solace that it was Dan who capitalized. And he had literally just signed a contract to go back to Andretti Autosport, where he won the '05 title and had the potential to get back on top of the sport for a long time. Truly sad. Even worse that he had a wife and two little guys.

Now, all this being said, I wish I could say "I can't believe this happened". Indycar races on 1.5 mile speedways are ticking timebombs. You simply cannot place 20+ (and in this case 34) cars on a narrow track like that at 230mph+ and go flat out for 2 hours without the potential for this. You have to create an opportunity for the drivers to lift off the gas (which is why Indianapolis still works), and spread themselves out. On high-banked places like Texas, Charlotte, Vegas, Chicago etc, crashes like this with cars vaulting into the air are inevitable. Simply put, these are NASCAR tracks. The catch fences are fine for cars with fenders but when an Indycar gets airborne, the fences are, for lack of a better term, giant cheese graters. Remember Kenny Brack's crash at Texas a few years ago? I'd say for the sheer single car magnitude it looked even worse than Wheldon's, but miraculously Brack survived.

Even Dario Franchitti, the greatest driver this series has ever seen, agrees:

“I said before this is not a suitable track,” four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti of the Ganassi team said after the accident. “You can't get away from anybody — one small mistake and you have a massive wreck.”

I hope Indycar gets their heads on their head on straight and rethinks going to these types of tracks. The late-to-mid 90s CART series did it well: an even mix of road, street and short ovals, plus Indianapolis. It's such a shame that American open-wheel racing has come to this. It's turned into a spec series where drivers with money and no talent buy their way into rides and have no idea what the hell they're doing. I mean look who triggered this melee: James Hinchcliffe? Wade Cunningham? Charlie Kimball? Pippa Mann? C'mon.

I love open-wheel. It's always been my first love in auto racing, even though my interest in it in recent years has waned compared to NASCAR. The first racing event I ever went to was the '95 Indy 500 Pole day when I was 9 years old. Greg Moore's crash was the start of the decline, and I had that same sinking feeling yesterday. I truly hope this next-gen car re-ignites my interest, but sadly I can just see more and more of the top drivers leaving the series to go stockcar racing, where the money and safety is.

RIP Dan. You truly will be missed.

[/rant]

I agree with everything you said except attacking Hinchcliff and Hildebrand. Both of them worked their way into the circuit as they should have driving in the Atlantics and Indy Lights. They did not "buy" their rides, they earned them. Can't speak about Cunningham or Mann because to be honest I'd never heard of them until yesterday.

As for tracks sadly they seem to be going to wrong way. They lost New Hampshire which was a very low banked paperclip that required breaking and was perfect for IndyCar (assuming they weren't stupid running it in the rain) and they're adding Fontana which is a fairly high banked 2 mile D oval which has already claimed an open wheel driver's life, in a race, in the last 15 years (RIP Greg Moore). And it makes even less sense since the SoCal region already has a race at Long Beach (arguably the best street circuit on the continent).

[raysox]

I think that it's more the completely round Tri-Ovals. For what it's worth, in the days I've spent racing Nascar simulators, you lift off the gas at tracks such as Texas and Atlanta. But at the new Kansas and Las Vegas, you can run flat out. I say run some testing on tracks with the safer car, just to see. Maybe take a year off from them, but those races are some of the most entertaining. I mean, just watch. A safer car with that kind of racing could be good for the sport.

It's the open wheel part that isn't safe. One bump to the tire, and it shoots your car off. The new back wheel should be harder to hit, if you look at it.

It's still really sad. I could say he was one of my favorites. He lived in St. Pete, so I can say he's my hometown driver.

[rvrdgsfn]

Jimmie Johnson wants IndyCar to remove oval courses....

http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/7115707/in-wake-dan-wheldon-death-jimmie-johnson-says-indycar-quit-racing-ovals

CONCORD, N.C. -- One day after the death of reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon in a fiery crash in Las Vegas, five-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson said it's time for IndyCar to stop racing on ovals.

Johnson said he was glued to his television Sunday watching the coverage of the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when Wheldon was killed in a 15-car pileup.

Johnson said he believes the IndyCar cars are built for street circuits and road courses, and drive too fast to race on ovals. He says the car is not built to withstand the bumping that occurs on ovals.

"I wouldn't run them on ovals. There's just no need to," Johnson said Monday during a test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Those cars are fantastic for street circuits, for road courses. I hate, hate, hate that this tragedy took place. But hopefully they can learn from it and make those cars safer on ovals somehow.

[bosrs1]

Jimmie Johnson wants IndyCar to remove oval courses....

http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/7115707/in-wake-dan-wheldon-death-jimmie-johnson-says-indycar-quit-racing-ovals

CONCORD, N.C. -- One day after the death of reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon in a fiery crash in Las Vegas, five-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson said it's time for IndyCar to stop racing on ovals.

Johnson said he was glued to his television Sunday watching the coverage of the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when Wheldon was killed in a 15-car pileup.

Johnson said he believes the IndyCar cars are built for street circuits and road courses, and drive too fast to race on ovals. He says the car is not built to withstand the bumping that occurs on ovals.

"I wouldn't run them on ovals. There's just no need to," Johnson said Monday during a test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Those cars are fantastic for street circuits, for road courses. I hate, hate, hate that this tragedy took place. But hopefully they can learn from it and make those cars safer on ovals somehow.

He's pretty much right. Outside Indy and maybe a few of the small ovals where there's just not enough room to get up over 200 mph like say Milwaukee, Iowa (and New Hampshire if they weren't dropping them already), it's time to GTF off of the ovals. The racing on the bigger 1.5 mile ovals like Texas, Vegas, Kentucky and 2 milers like California next year is far too fast to be safe. And from a marketing/financial standpoint, less people show up at the races than the road and street races which kinda disproves the whole reason that the IRL was created for originally anyway (this myth that Americans wanted to see open wheel racing on ovals).

[rvrdgsfn]

Jimmie Johnson wants IndyCar to remove oval courses....

http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/7115707/in-wake-dan-wheldon-death-jimmie-johnson-says-indycar-quit-racing-ovals

CONCORD, N.C. -- One day after the death of reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon in a fiery crash in Las Vegas, five-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson said it's time for IndyCar to stop racing on ovals.

Johnson said he was glued to his television Sunday watching the coverage of the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when Wheldon was killed in a 15-car pileup.

Johnson said he believes the IndyCar cars are built for street circuits and road courses, and drive too fast to race on ovals. He says the car is not built to withstand the bumping that occurs on ovals.

"I wouldn't run them on ovals. There's just no need to," Johnson said Monday during a test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Those cars are fantastic for street circuits, for road courses. I hate, hate, hate that this tragedy took place. But hopefully they can learn from it and make those cars safer on ovals somehow.

He's pretty much right. Outside Indy and maybe a few of the small ovals where there's just not enough room to get up over 200 mph like say Milwaukee, Iowa (and New Hampshire if they weren't dropping them already), it's time to GTF off of the ovals. The racing on the bigger 1.5 mile ovals like Texas, Vegas, Kentucky and 2 milers like California next year is far too fast to be safe. And from a marketing/financial standpoint, less people show up at the races than the road and street races which kinda disproves the whole reason that the IRL was created for originally anyway (this myth that Americans wanted to see open wheel racing on ovals).

In all honesty, I think they are slowly getting away from the ovals, the new 2012 schedule showed less Oval & more road & the rumors of Houston coming back & the revival of Detroit, I could see Ovals gone with the exception of a few (Indy, Iowa, Texas)

[DelayedPenalty]

If they only ran Indy I would be fine with that, but Indy and Milwaukee would be perfect. The rest can be road and street circuits.

[capitalcanuck]

Offical Cause Of Death Blunt Force truma to the head due to an auto accident

[charger77]

I know nothing about racing, but people have been talking about slowing down racing to make it safer. Would Wheldon have survived if say they were driving 25-50 mph slower?

[Sterling84]

Depends on how you mean. If he hits the catch fence just like he did at 20-25mph slower? Probably still terrible. But if the field's top speed was 20-25 slower? It's entirely possible that wreck isn't nearly as bad for anyone.

I'm no expert either but it's all physics. I remember watching a Mythbusters episode on hydro-planing once wherein a professional driver zoomed through standing water at like 90mph and was fine. Tried it again at 100 and completely lost control. SO it is a matter of seemingly insignificant degrees. Aerodynamics and engineering..obviously over my head. But we all know there are precise tolerances that allow an aircraft to take off and land safely. This is the same in reverse. The cars are designed to force air over them (pushing the car downward into the track) and those tolerances work for the most part (even in a spinout situation). But if something happens that lifts any part of those cars off the ground? They become like...kites for lack of a better term. A shape that catches air rather than cuts through it. NASCAR was having problems with cars going airborn and their solution was the restrictor plate (granted....roof flaps too) and that has largely worked wonders (except for a few notable Carl Edwards-related incidents). And from what I understand the restrictor plates prevent far less than 20-25mph off the top end speed. Closer to 10mph? Anybody? So I think that it's reasonable to assume slower speeds and/or fewer cars in the field absolutely could have prevented what happened yesterday.

Every mph counts. It's not the only thing (fenders) but it's the primary thing.

[raysox]

Well, if you land head first into the wall, its hard to survive at any speed. They said head trauma, and I knew what happened. If you watch the crash, his car hits the top of the wall and explodes where the O'Reilly sign is.

[John in KY]

I know nothing about racing, but people have been talking about slowing down racing to make it safer. Would Wheldon have survived if say they were driving 25-50 mph slower?

No; in this case it was how the car hit the fence. Back in 1996 a driver named Jeff Krosnoff was killed in a CART street race in Toronto in a very similar manner - in his case the car got up into the catch fence and was flipped so the cockpit side hit into a light post just inside the fence. Even at that fastest part of a temporary street circuit they are going to be at least 45 mph slower than yesterday (assuming you can hit 180 on the longest straight on any temporary street circuit).

As I recall that is also what happened to Greg Moore back in 1999 - although his car didn't get into the chain link fence - he crashed into the inner retaining wall in Fontana. As he went through the infield his car bounced over a service road, got airborne and hit the wall on the cockpit side (or top of the car if you prefer).

It is a very thin margin sometimes in racing - yesterday Will Power was also launched up into the catch fence, but his car didn't flip so the cockpit side hit the fencing/wall and he walked way (although he did eventually have his back checked out at the hospital).

[Sport]

I did temp work this summer and a couple weeks ago for two races at MidOhio and Kentucky for the sign printing company that I work for. I had previously never seen an Indycar race and I was blown away by the speed. To be honest, I wasn't comfortable with it. They go so fast it's hard to imagine there's even a human being inside these vehicles.

I set up signs around the track and helped the Izod crew put up their flags and tents at the Indycar village. Quite a few of the signs and flags featured Dan Wheldon and he stopped by the Indycar fan village stage on Saturday of the race at MidOhio. I saw the guy in person in August. Tragic.