Open wheel racing on a lot of oval tracks with banking is a seriously dangerous proposition, but to many, there seemed to be something especially dangerous about the final race of the IndyCar Series season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. On Lap 11 of the Las Vegas Indy 300, a fiery crash took out 15 cars, sent multiple drivers to the hospital, and took the life of former Indy 500 winner and IndyCar Series Champion Dan Wheldon. One of Wheldon’s fellow drivers, Oriol Servia, used some blunt language when describing what he thought of the track.
Dan Wheldon’s Death: Fellow Driver Had ‘Bad Feeling’ About Track
“We all had a bad feeling about this place in particular just because of the high banking and how easy it was to go flat. And if you give us the opportunity, we are drivers and we try to go to the front. We race each other hard because that’s what we do...We knew if could happen, but it’s just really sad.”
Wheldon had an opportunity to win $5 million if he won the race from the back, while Will Power was chasing down Dario Franchitti for a championship and Danica Patrick was competing in her final IndyCar Series race. The race was always going to be contentious and aggressive. That, combined with a big field and a track with high banking produced a terrible crash that took a man’s life, and IndyCar is going to have to seriously reconsider which tracks they should conduct races at in the future.
For more on the crash at the Las Vegas IndyCar 300 and Wheldon’s death, visit SB Nation’s Motorsports Hub. Also, be sure to read Pop-Off Valve’s tribute to Dan Wheldon.
See More:
