Just 24 hours before his fatal crash at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Dan Wheldon noted that things hadn't been going very well as he and his team started their pursuit of the $5 million GoDaddy IndyCar Challenge. During Thursday's practice session and Friday's practice and qualifying sessions, they were quite a bit off the pace in the No. 77 Bowers & Wilkins Magnolia/William Rast Dallara/Honda. Off the pace in auto racing can mean as little as three mph off the pace, because the deficit can add up quickly.
Little did he know that it was about to get worse -- a whole lot worse -- on Sunday October 16th. The video below shows what happened. The problem begins with a puff of smoke at the 0.11 second point, and ends up with 15 cars involved:
Dan Wheldon was in the car that went airborne on lap 13, flew for about 200 yards, and smashed into the wall just outside turn 2. Three other drivers, including championship contender Will Power, were hurt in the pileup. The wreck left Townsend Bell upside down and smoldering cars and debris littered the track nearly halfway up the straightaway of the 1.5-mile oval. Wheldon was airlifted to a nearby hosptial, but his injuries proved to be unsurvivable. Bleacher Report has a list of all drivers affected by the crash.
Wheldon was well behind the first wave of cars that got into trouble on the fateful lap, but still had no way to avoid the wrecks in front of him. There was no time to brake or steer out of trouble. "I saw two cars touch each other up in front of me and then I tried to slow down, couldn't slow down," driver Paul Tracy said. "Then Dan's car, from what I saw in the videos, came over my back wheel and over top of me. Just a horrendous accident."
Getting the remaining drivers off the track long enough to clear the track was also a daunting task. Ryan Briscoe explained "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."
By the way, the remainder of the race was cancelled, and drivers did a five-lap tribute to Wheldon after the track was cleared. Points-leader Dario Franchitti, who avoided the crash, ended up clinching his third straight title and fourth overall. Wheldon, a two time Indianapolis 500 winner and former rookie of the year, leaves behind his wife, Susan, and his two kids, Sebastian and Oliver. When someone makes a mistake at 225 miles per hour, there simply is no time to react if one is too close; this is a risk all drivers accept.
