Horrendous Indy car crash in Vegas -- Update: RIP Dan Wheldon

RIP. Absolutely horrible.

 

And I just started reading Michael Waltrip's book about the '01 Daytona 500 this weekend, too.
What a confluence of events: a silly $5 million stunt which puts one of the top drivers at the back (not a blown engine or crash after qualifying, an overcrowded track, inexperienced drivers in what I suspect were shit cars in one last opportunity to race them...
It make's today's horrible event sadly inevitable, doesn't it?

 

They likely knew it was bad from watching a replay of Wheldon's in-car view in the truck. They didn't put it on air. And the video would have cut off when the car hit the catch fence, because the camera is atop the roll cage. Coincidence dept.: Fox had an in-car camera with Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500, and never cut back to it after the crash.

 

Hadn't seen this elsewhere, but hadn't really been looking.

http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/7111348/indycar-series-dan-wheldon-death-stuns-racing-world

 

From Paul Tracy's twitter account, which appears to be legit:

"Sadness turning to anger now , indycar needs to put the 5mil in a trust for dans kids !!!!"


Uggh. Really not the time for that. And it badly ignores the reality of that $5 million, which isn't exactly sitting in a briefcase in Vegas right now.

 

Terry Blount also floated that idea in his column.

http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/7111345/indycar-dan-wheldon-death-turns-celebration-sorrow

 

It's hard to compare. Since Wheldon didn't have a full-time ride this year, but had one as recently as last year, think of a veteran and good, but not all-time great QB a bit past his prime that signs up as a mid-season pick-up in the NFL, wins a must-win playoff game, and who had glory in his past.

I dunno, maybe Randall Cunningham with the Vikings in '98?

 

Aero package is different at Richmond and an "official" full-field at a small track like Richmond is in the mid-20s (the max for IndyCar is supposed to be 28, but I think its even less at a short track). Cars do not draft and bunch up at Richmond as they do on the 1 1/2-mile banked ovals. And as you mentioned, they aren't running close to 220 miles per hour at Richmond as they do at Vegas.

And 33 at the Indianapolis 500 is different because there's virtually no banking and not anywhere near as much drafting at the track and the field can spread out.

 

And while it's really easy to yell that IndyCar should "do the right thing," the reality is... there is no $5 million. There's an insurance policy that will pay out in the (highly unlikely) case of a win. I have no idea how much IndyCar paid for that, but it may not even be in six figures. On top of that only $2.5 million would have gone to Wheldon, and while I don't know how that was going to be paid out, I do know the fan half was in installments over (I believe) 20 years.

And not for nothing... IndyCar is in dire straits as it is. There's no money there.

 

Geez, on top of everything else, I can't imagine how that fan, a 51-year-old woman from out east, felt. I don't even know if she was at the race.