Dan Wheldon dies at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

I don't often watch Indy but this blows




tldw: he went flying through the air while on fire and hit the catchfence cockpit first at 225mph


My best friend races in real life and while he's not going indy-car speeds, he still has been some violent accidents. Definately makes me take this little old game a little less seriously.

was shocked to hear this when i woke up this morning, terrible news...

OH it was all over the news here in Vegas last night! The track is only about 10 - 15 minutes from my house. Yes, racing is VERY dangerous but they put so much emphasis on safety that it takes a freak accident like this for a driver to seriously get hurt or die. Sadly his time came at 225mph. The bright side of the tragedy is that out of all those cars hitting each other at 200+ no one else had any major injuries! That is a testament to the safety of the cars and track.

There are 2 "Fail" situations here.

1) As part of some promotional contest (I don't follow Indy, so I don't know the particulars) that forced him to start at the back and work his way to the front
2) This was the last race in these cars. The next generation Indy cars will have guards that prevent tire to tire contact:


Better late than never? Ironically, that is Wheldon testing the new car.

I believe that, similar to the safety revolution in NASCAR after the passing of Dale Earnhardt, Wheldon's death will lead to similar evaluations and changes in not just IndyCar, but open wheel racing in general.

To be completely honest i feel it is fairly stupid to call the cause on the car itself and not look at the bigger picture. IMO the Indy Racing League should not be racing on cars like Las Vegas, Charlotte, Texas, Fontana or Michigan simply due to the speeds. The overall safety of the cars isnt what needs renovating, Indy just needs to be run on slower tracks (Think Milwaukee or PIR) in general. I for one woulnt mind seeing the IRL become more of a F1 sort of series, only running road courses, with the Indy 00 being the only exception.