IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon died of injuries he received in a 15-car crash early in the IndyCar World Championship race at Las Vegas this afternoon. He was 33 years old.
It’s being reported as happening on lap 12, but lap 11 was clearly displayed on the broadcast graphic. Perhaps it was not updated promptly. Whatever the case, it was easily the most sustainedly horrific racing crash I’ve ever seen. It was hard to believe you were looking at something real. I’m not going to share the clip here, and if you haven’t seen it and go looking for it, just be warned that you won’t be able to unsee it.
Despite appearances, drivers kept coming from the care center OK, so I was hopeful. It got a lot harder to be hopeful after the drivers came out of a closed-door meeting with their heads in their hands and sharing hugs. So sorry for his friends, family, and especially his wife and two young sons. God be with them.
Wheldon was a bit of a cocky so-and-so—the sort of fellow you rib because he was into it with one of your drivers, or because you saw him mouth off in an interview. I wasn’t happy with him backing into his second Indianapolis 500 victory earlier this year, when J.R. Hildebrand, leading by several seconds, drove himself into the Turn 4 wall on the last lap.
He had done some excellent broadcast work this season, and did a lot of shakedown testing on the new IndyCar tub coming next year. He was widely speculated to be Danica Patrick’s successor in the GoDaddy-Andretti car when she went to NASCAR full-time.
There was a lot of reason to be excited about today’s final race of the season. It was a fast oval—my favorite. My man Tony Kanaan was on the pole. It was Danica’s last scheduled IndyCar race. There was a lot of drama between Dario Franchitti and Will Power, with 18 points separating them for this year’s title.
Instead, it wound up being a poignant reminder of just how wickedly dangerous the whole affair is.
Thanks for the good times, Dan. RIP.
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