Dan Wheldon Dies

[Determined2Win]

LAS VEGAS (AP)—Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon died Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after his car became ensnarled in a fiery 15-car pileup on Lap 13, flew over another vehicle and landed in a catch fence just outside turn 2.

 

The 33-year-old racer was a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, including this year’s race.

 

Three other drivers, including championship contender Will Power, were hurt in the pileup.

 

Weldon was airlifted from the track to University Medical Center; about two hours later, his colleagues were told of his death.

 

“IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries,” IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race.”

 

In his honor, drivers took part in a five-lap salute around the oval.

 

IndyCar has not had a fatality since Paul Dana was killed at Homestead in 2006. He died after a crash in a morning warmup.

 

Sunday’s wreck left Townsend Bell upside down while smoldering cars and debris littered the track nearly halfway up the straightaway of the 1.5-mile oval.

 

The track was red-flagged following the accidents while crews worked on fences and removed smashed cars.

 

Wheldon started in the back of the pack but quickly worked his way through the 34-car field before the wreck.

 

“It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible,” said Danica Patrick, making her final IndyCar start. “It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell the smoke, you could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered.

 

Drivers had been concerned about the high speeds at the track, where they were hitting nearly 225 mph during practice.

 

Their concerns became reality when contact on Turn 2 sent cars flying through the air, crashing into each other and into the outside wall and catch fence.

 

“I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ryan Briscoe said. “The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there’s just stuff everywhere. Crazy.”

 

It was Wheldon’s 134th career start, but only the third of the season for the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

 

source

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCHvMQWJ33A

[alb]

Rip, insane car crash

[Cromyth]

RIP

[Drox]

I heard about it then looked up the youtube footage of the wreck, pretty crazy crash. RIP

[delirium]

I don't really follow any form of racing but this is sad.

 

R.I.P

[Zeke]

I don't really like racing either. I might watch Formula 1 like once every 5 years, but this is horrible regardless. The track was way too overcrowded from what I heard and there were a lot of amateur drivers.

[slaminsalmon]

Another reason why racing sports should be banned

[Cromyth]

Another reason why racing sports should be banned

 

Because someone died? I personally would rather die in a racing accident rather than being paralyzed from getting hit in the head

[Drox]

Another reason why racing sports should be banned

 

Safety is something most motor sports take very seriously, even more so when someone dies like this. Since they go back and look at how they can prevent something like this from happening again safety wise. Thus why NASCAR has neck protectors after Dale Senior was killed. F1 is a lot harder to do stuff with safety wise since the cock pit of the car is so small, these kinds of things happen and the drivers who have been doing this most of their lives know that everytime they get in a race car.

 

So banning it really isn't the answer when they take measures to make it safer for the drivers when they can. All sports have their dangerous sides, when something like this happens it just reminds people that it can happen which makes them look into preventing it happening again.

[Im a Jackass]

ah I was watching this on TV when it happened to bad too . Almost as bad when Dale Senior died