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

[imjustagirl]

Bob Kravitz weighs in as well.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011111016024

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

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

IndyCar had offered any driver who was not a 2011 series regular a chance to split a $5 million bonus with a fan if the driver won the event. Series officials were hoping some NASCAR drivers would try it. They didn't.

So Wheldon was the guy. Wheldon, the 2005 series champion, didn't have a full-time ride and had competed in only two events in 2011.

If not for the promotion, it's unlikely he would have been in a race car Sunday. Here's a thought: Give the bonus money to Wheldon's family.

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.

Wow.

A fictional purse AND a dangerous race track?

Mrs. Wheldon will be lawyering up in due time.

 

[Bob Cook]

Tomas Schekter, on his Twitter feed, floated the idea of a drivers' union. I don't think that will happen, but given so many drivers' anger with IndyCar's lack of regard for their safety (such as that restart in the rain in New Hampshire), I have no trouble imagining that the drivers believe Bernard, Barnhart, et al, don't feel like the current regime understands these men and women are literally putting their lives at stake for this series.

 

[Bubbler]

Tomas Schekter, on his Twitter feed, floated the idea of a drivers' union. I don't think that will happen, but given so many drivers' anger with IndyCar's lack of regard for their safety (such as that restart in the rain in New Hampshire), I have no trouble imagining that the drivers believe Bernard, Barnhart, et al, don't feel like the current regime understands these men and women are literally putting their lives at stake for this series.

Good for them.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

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

IndyCar had offered any driver who was not a 2011 series regular a chance to split a $5 million bonus with a fan if the driver won the event. Series officials were hoping some NASCAR drivers would try it. They didn't.

So Wheldon was the guy. Wheldon, the 2005 series champion, didn't have a full-time ride and had competed in only two events in 2011.

If not for the promotion, it's unlikely he would have been in a race car Sunday. Here's a thought: Give the bonus money to Wheldon's family.

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.

Wow.

A fictional purse AND a dangerous race track?

Mrs. Wheldon will be lawyering up in due time.

It's not a fictional purse. It's a purse that would be paid out by an insurance policy in the highly unlikely event of a win.

The insurance company could always cough up the $5 million out of the kindness of its heart, but I wouldn't bet on that.

 

[playthrough]

It was actually a 40-year annuity...I forget who went into details a week or two ago (Cavin, maybe) but it was an odd structure. There wasn't going to be a briefcase full of cash, Vegas-style. And because the driver was Wheldon, more than capable of winning, the insurance premium was higher.

 

[murphyc]

Our former foster son, 6, was excited to watch the race with me today. I turned it on shortly after the wreck. They showed a replay and I knew right away it was fatal. I turned it off and encouraged time on the bicycle. I checked back later when Davey Hamilton was giving an interview. Davey was asked if the accident gave him second thoughts about coming back to race again. "Absolutely," Davey replied. NO hesitation.
Shame on IndyCar officials for putting 34 cars going 225 mph together on a 1.5 mile track. That's asking for trouble. If Bernard doesn't fire Brian Barnhart for this, he should resign himself.
A couple of things about Wheldon: If IndyCar had stayed all or mostly ovals, he would have been a bigger factor. As it was, he was about to be a lot more visible next year in Danica's GoDaddy car. Two-time Indy 500 winner (probably should have won in '06 as well) and former series champion in the most recognizable car in the series, driving for a famous last name? It was all lining up perfectly for Dan. Plus he had more knowledge about the new cars than anyone since he was the test driver.
RIP Dan Wheldon.

 

[westcoastvol]

I'm gonna combine several random thoughts from several posts here so bear with me...

I'm just numb from it because I clicked on the race about a lap and a half before it all happened.

When the tarp comes out, and there's that much silence, it's generally bad news. Dale Sr., McDuffie at the Glen, Neil Bonnett's practice crash at Daytona '94.

NBC4 in LA's late news just showed the view from Wheldon's car as the first part of the wreck was developing ahead of him against the wall, but they cut away to the wide aerial shot just before anything happened with his car. (separately, Fred Roggin's forehead botox is so obvious)

As to all the delays and dead air between the replays of the accident and the actual announcement, perhaps another part of it is because of the need to inform family members and figuring out how to deliver the news to the public. Reminded me of when Princess Diana was killed and I always wondered how long she'd actually been dead by the time they announced it.

Using the equation of one car for every 400 feet of track, 34 cars on a mile and a half track is 14.2 cars too many. There's gonna be some serious lawsuits going on.

When drawing comparisons to other athletes, I couldn't help but think of Matt Kenseth. A past winner, consistent, if not very flashy or spectacular in victory. Plus, while he has a ride for next year, he doesn't have a flagship sponsor for the whole season, as Crown Royal's going away. Ditto for Wheldon before the GoDaddy ride appeared.

How in the heck does the IRL even stay in operation, financially, with not a lot of races on the schedule? Can the league survive something like this?

I was surprised that none of the cars hit the flat part of the apron and kicked up into the wall, ala Jimmy Johnson last night at Charlotte.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

The ABC signoff from the actual race was pretty powerful: "Many people ask me why I always sign off 'Till we meet again.' Because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye, Dan Wheldon."

That literally has just sent me into sobs on my couch.

That finish from Marty Reid justified all the, quite frankly, blah commentary from him over the years. Absolutely appropriate.

And in addition to that, Cheever and Goodyear did a fantastic job today.

 

[playthrough]

westcoastvol, it will be interesting to see if IndyCar can survive. Even before today, the pendulum was swinging back toward road/street courses, which are fun local shows but worthless for TV ratings, which you gotta have to get sponsor cash. As Nascar has shown, the formula is oval racing. Period. And truth be told, IndyCar IS exhilarating to watch on the banked ovals. But oval-track promoters can't make money off it because fans haven't been going, and when the Bernard-regime IndyCar tries run the show themselves and gimmicks it up ... well, they're 0 for 1.

 

[Birdscribe]

I wonder if ABC knew what the news was going to be? I mean, we all suspected it, but I wonder if they had any sort of inside info?

I thought that all during the coverage.

Was there an in-car camera on Wheldon's car?

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.

Courtesy of Australian TV, here's the full video from the camera in Wheldon's car, from beginning to end.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/motorsport/drivers-may-pull-out-of-gold-coast-v8s-20111017-1lsmx.html

Absolutely horrific.

 

[westcoastvol]

Having seen Birdscribe's link of Wheldon's car cam, yes, ABC did in fact show that footage at least a couple of times in the immediate aftermath as cars were still on the track. The tire flying toward camera is particularly chilling.