Motor Racing Forum

Man. This just happened today, apparently.

Dan Wheldon died in the crash. Or because of his injuries he sustained in the crash.

@Daveyo520 said:

Dan Wheldon died in the crash.

Oh my God. That's horrible. Hopefully everyone else is OK. Rest in peace, Dan.

My thoughts go out to whomever died in that crash and their families. :'(

This just goes to show that this sport isn't just guys turning left. One mistake can lead to some crazy shit.

Wow, that's really sad. Hopefully the other drivers involved aren't too badly injured.

@myketuna: No that is NASCAR.

Jesus Christ, that's one of the worst crashes seen.

I don't know much about IndyCar/F1 stuff, but some of the other comments I've been reading have had a lot of people upset at Indycar for putting these guys on an oval, where speeds are high and the cars naturally clump. I guess in F1 and overseas the more turn-based courses would never see this kind of huge accident, since only a couple of cars are ever side-by-side?

I stopped watching the NE/Dallas game to watch the rest of the coverage. They're going to do five laps under caution to honor him, and end the race there.

And how many people watching do so secretly hoping this will happen. But when it does happen, wow, it is a terrible sight. And these cars are bad with crashes because they tend to get much more airborne than a normal or Nascar car will with no top of the car protection.

Absolutely terrible. While I don't really follow racing, if I had to choose my favorite type of racing, it'd probably be IndyCar.. but this is the dangers that come with it. May Dan rest in peace.

Thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

@Rorie: Indy cars has been primarily ovals for as long as I can remember, with few circuits here and there. They recently merged with the Champ car series, which was primarily circuits. I think that added more circuits to the schedule. I'm more of an F1 fan, so I only vaguely know this stuff. Hopefully someone can post giving you more info.

It's true that this wouldn't happen in F1. In most cases the various tire walls and sand traps slow the drivers down enough before an impact. This is probably the scariest crash to happen this season in F1. The driver was taken to the hospital, but ended up being okay. There's also this crash from last year. Again, enough run off area for the car to lose speed, and a deep tire wall to absorb the impact of a car. Also, due to there being only circuits in F1, cars will usually go off course in any high speed impact so there won't be more than the initial two or three cars involved.

@_Phara0h_ said:

Wow that's one crazy crash but apparently it was a matter of time before something like this would happen. I wonder if this will effect Indy racing??

Ratings for Indy racing has been declining for years now, and even ratings for the Indy 500 have been going down (even though that's probably the only race that sells out). Say what you will about her talent, but they're losing Danica Patrick to NASCAR next year, which is a big loss. After this... who knows.

A new circuit is being built in Texas primarily for Formula 1, but hopefully that will bring a fresh breath of air to motor sports in America in general.

EDIT

Oh, I also forgot to mention that the Indy car series is getting a new chassis next season. Of course there will be an investigation as to how this happened, but there's only so much safety one can have when traveling at 200+ miles per hour. If it turns out what happened to Dan Wheldon was preventable, it'll be interesting to see if the new car fixes that problem, or how long it will take to make such a change.

Wow that's a lot of flame and momentum!

Dan Wheldon unfortunately died from his injuries sustained during this crash.

Crazy, some of the cars are just destroyed beyond recognition. RIP Dan Wheldon.