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

My question for the deskers in the office: We're going to skip the wreck photos and those of him on the stretcher. We're going with the photo of him with his family celebrating after the Indy 500 win. How about everyone else? Seems to me the Indy 500 photo shows what truly was lost today.

 

Pro Stock drag racer Bert Jackson died at an ADRL event at Rockingham Dragway a couple of weeks ago, now this. I worked in this industry for five years and never wanted to get too close to any of the drivers because, honestly, this kind of thing is always in the back of your mind. I never met Dan, but met Bert numerous times and he was a great guy. This is just heartbreaking. I hope his family and boys can find peace.

 

According to Curt Cavin, Pippa Mann and JR Hildebrand will be held in the hospital overnight. Will Power has been released.

(ABC had reported that Mann and Hildebrand complained of dizziness, so I would suspect it's a concussion, but that's obviously just speculation. Power had lower back pain, and went to the hospital after earlier refusing treatment.)

 

Just awful, awful stuff.

And I disagree with 2CM. Thirty-four cars on a banked 1 1/2-mile oval where the aero packages don't allow for separation of the field is crazy. Indy is 2 1/2 miles (and flat) and they only allow 33.

Watching the replays, it looked like Wheldon didn't lift or didn't have time to lift. Not implying fault or anything from that observation, just looked that way on the replay.

 

Photo of the five-lap tribute would also be appropriate.

 

None that I saw. I didn't expect a stadium announcement or a game stoppage or anything, but the broadcast booth said absolutely nothing (it was the Pats/Cowboys, btw).

Also nothing when they went back to the Fox studio. I guess they weren't obligated to, but I was surprised that there wasn't even a mention.

 

Nothing in the baseball pre-game either.

 

I am admittedly not knowledgeable about open-wheel. But they'd run full fields at Richmond, which is 3/4 of a mile. Obviously, the speeds aren't comparable because of that, but I guess explain why 33 on a 1.5 is ridiculous while 33 on a 2.5 isn't. I'm not doubting you, I just don't understand it.

I only talked to Wheldon a handful of times, but he was fantastic in every one of them. Treated everyone equally, and was indeed a very engaging guy. I was stunned when I heard it, even though a friend of mine and I discussed the use of "stunning" in this instance. But I was. When sponsorship fell through, he could have just walked away. But he did everything he could to help the sport. RIP to a very good man with a great smile and amazing spirit.

 

Not that it's relevant in any way really, but can one of you guys offer me some perspective of how big Wheldon was in the sport? Is this like, say, Aaron Rodgers dying? Someone young and extremely talented who has already accomplished a ton and expected to accomplish a lot more? Or is this like Sidney Crosby dying? He's one of the few IndyCar drivers I could name, but I'm just curious what he meant to the sport. Obviously seemed like a very nice guy from what I'm reading.

 

I wasn't watching really closely, but I thought I saw Fox put a photo of him up on a black screen with dates as they were leaving the Pats-Cowboys broadcast.

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.