The Race I Never Wanted to See

My passion for motorsports began 10 years ago – I can’t remember exactly why, but it probably had something to do with me being bored on Sundays or either that my best friend, Bobby, was a NASCAR fan.

I started out simply watching the Sprint Cup Series (then it was called the Winston Cup Series) each week and over the years my racing watching spread to the two others NASCAR touring series: Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series. A few years after that I started tuning into the open wheel racing world of the IndyCar series. Today I watch almost every single race of all four of those series (and a few here and there of other series) – that comes out to around 120 races a year.

I knew that racing was dangerous and potentially life-ending … who doesn’t? It’s rather obvious that someone driving a car at speeds around 200 MPH or higher could be killed in a crash – and they do crash, sometimes rather horrifically. I had never witnessed it though … I started watching NASCAR in the months following Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

After that crash NASCAR went all out on safety – mandating the HANS device that protects a driver’s neck, instituting SAFER barriers in the walls and making the cars themselves safer. Because of these inventions and additions to the sport I’ve seen many wrecks over the years that should have been worse, end up in driver after driver walking away without a scratch. One of these very wrecks happened on Saturday night (Oct. 15) when Jimmie Johnson’s number 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet got loose while running under Ryan Newman’s number 39 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet and snapped wickedly to the right and hard into the Charlotte Motor Speedway wall in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. The impact was likely the hardest of the year and of Johnson’s career, but he climbed out without a scratch and though he definitely said he felt it he likely doesn’t feel any effects from it today.

I figured Johnson’s wreck would be the worst of the weekend … unfortunately I was way wrong.

I think because of seeing all of these drivers walk away from impacts like that I had become convinced that tragedy and motorsports wouldn’t be used in the same sentence very often anymore, and thankfully that may be the case for NASCAR.

Despite thinking the worst would never happen, I did get scared for the safety of drivers. The first time I can ever remember being scared for a driver was when Elliott Sadler took his M&Ms number 38 Robert Yates Ford for a wild ride in 2004 at Talladega Superspeedway. Over the years there probably hasn’t been a single driver (whether I rooted for them or not) where I haven’t felt at least momentarily frightened for. I’m not a fan of Jimmie Johnson, but I grimaced on Saturday night.

I always knew that Indy cars weren’t as safe as NASCAR cars, but I guess it was something I never really thought much about. I guess I took it for granted. Much like with NASCAR, I’ve seen some pretty bad IndyCar wrecks over the years. Just over a month ago Tony Kanaan had a pretty serious wreck at New Hampshire Motor Speedway where his number 82 KV Racing Technology – Lotus overturned. Kanaan climbed out safely.

Much like my NASCAR heroes, my heroes of the IndyCar series seemed larger than life and invincible – I think they have to feel that way too, if they didn’t I don’t think it’d be possible to do what they do.

I guess I’ve been naïve about motorsports and death over the years. Today more than ever it seems possible that a driver could begin a race full of life and never reach that checkered flag at the end.

Watching every race of the IndyCar series season is something that has come to me pretty recently, I can’t remember the exact season I started watching full time, but this season was the first in which I caught all 17 races. For years I’d just watch the bigger races, mainly the legendary Indianapolis 500 (which every sports fan should see yearly, whether they really like motorsports or not – it’s that kind of event).

The first Indianapolis 500 I remember seeing was in 2005. That year the Indy 500 was a bigger deal than usual as Danica Patrick was debuting at Indy and people held big hopes in her. She became the first woman to ever lead laps at the Indy 500 that year and ended up finishing a record fourth. Her fourth place finish garnered most of the news. The next day people probably could’ve told you where Danica placed, but wouldn’t have even known the winner’s name. That pissed me off, even then before I became the fan of IndyCar I am today. The winner was Dan Wheldon and he was dominant that year. The Indy 500 title was his fifth win of the season and he would go on to win the series championship that year, the only of his career.

The greatest Indy race I’ve ever seen was this year’s Indianapolis 500. It was one of those race endings that I’ll always remember – no matter how old and senile I get. It looked like rookie J.R. Hildebrand had things in the bag, but as sometimes happens the young 23-year old (good gracious these boys running out here are younger than me) made a rookie mistake and crashed coming to the yard of bricks that marks the Indy start-finish line. Hildebrand’s major gaffe was Wheldon’s incredible gain as he passed the kid’s damaged, but still moving forward car to win his second career Indianapolis 500, becoming just the 18^th driver to win the storied race multiple times. Even more incredible it was Wheldon’s only race of the year at that point, as he didn’t have a full time ride (despite being one of the sport’s greatest talents) due to lack of sponsorship.

Wheldon was a brash driver, but never in a way that made him seem full on arrogant or unlikable (in say the way it does NASCAR star Kyle Busch). It just meant he was confident and you’d be hard pressed to find a more confident racer than the British lad. In fact, Wheldon was one of the more likable drivers in the sport – among both fans and fellow drivers.

I think it was that confidence of Wheldon’s that led him to the season finale IndyCar race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday (Oct. 16). IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard had offered $5 million to any non-regular driver who could enter the Vegas race and win it. Half the $5 million would go to the driver and his team and the other half would go to a fan. The promotion was in hopes that a big star from another series (most likely NASCAR) would enter the race and be a huge spectacle for the sport that once was the motorsport in the country and now has sunk far behind NASCAR and become sort of a fringe sport in America. That didn’t happen. In fact, Wheldon (who at the time I didn’t think should be eligible for the award because of his stature in the series) was the only driver willing to take the chance.

I had been anticipating this race, the first IndyCar race in Vegas since 2000, for weeks. My personal favorite IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti held the points lead over Will Power, but his lead wasn’t comfortable. The race would not only be for the championship, but it would also be the final regular Indy race for the league’s most popular driver Danica Patrick before she goes full time to NASCAR in 2012. As a fan there couldn’t be any more excitement in the air.

The drivers, however, didn’t feel right – and we’d soon learn with good reason. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is just too fast for 34 cars to be running around in a large pack at over 200 MPH. If two cars make contact there is the potential for a massive melee. It’s the same thing that happens with pack racing at the NASCAR restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talledega, but IndyCar cars aren’t as equipped for big pileups. The race was a potential disaster waiting to happen, and it didn’t take long.

On just the 11^th lap of the 200 lap race the car of rookie Wade Cunningham got out of control and the car of Hildebrand ran into him ramping off of him and into the air. There was nothing that could stop what would happen next. At 200-plus MPH in a large two-by-two pack there is absolutely nothing you can do but hold on and hope for the best. Fifteen cars were involved in the wreck, multiple cars got airborne and overturned, others caught fire and the track literally looked like a war zone with all the debris strewn about. Fourteen of the drivers involved came out of it in the best situation, including Will Power who we can only chalk up to being lucky when we see how far his car flew through the air after ramping off of another. Wheldon, the man who just minutes before strapped into his car in hopes of winning the $5 million prize, didn’t come out. His car, like Hildebrand’s and Power’s, ramped off another competitor’s (Paul Tracy’s) became airborne, flew an incredible amount of distance and crashed into the catchfence with the cockpit side making impact.

Two hours later IndyCar officials announced that Wheldon died of “unsurvivable injuries.” The race was canceled, upon the insistence of the drivers and the remaining 19 cars not involved in the wreck formed a three-wide formation and drove around the track in a five lap salute to Wheldon as the track PA played a bagpipes version of “Amazing Grace.” Before, during and after the tribute drivers, friends of Wheldon’s, were visibly upset and in tears.

Dan Wheldon was a great champion of the sport, but the cruel hand of racing death shows no prejudice, Dale Earnhardt taught us all that.

Dan Wheldon didn’t take the checker flag at Las Vegas on Sunday, but instead became the fastest to life’s checkered flag. A racer’s death was one of the few firsts I’ve never seen in my years as a sports fan and it was the one first that I always hoped I’d never see. I don’t think I’ll ever watch a race the same way again (in any motorsport) and I’ll probably flinch a little more when I see a bad wreck knowing what the possible outcome might be … I take no comfort in that this week as NASCAR’s top series goes to Talladega (the sport’s most scary and probably dangerous track, where the most horrifying wrecks generally take place). I doubt I’ll ever see another IndyCar race where I don’t think about Dan Wheldon, that may hurt a little bit today, but in the future I’m sure I’ll see that Dan Wheldon won the race before everyone else, he just did it a little bit faster, after all that’s how he lived.