IndyCar Drivers Share Memories Of Bryan Clauson

Verizon IndyCar Series stars Graham Rahal, Ed Carpenter and Ryan Hunter-Reay were among those remembering Bryan Clauson on Monday.

After IndyCar made its official statement on the passing of driver Bryan Clauson, several league stars chimed in with their thoughts about the three-time Indianapolis 500 participant from the tire test at Pocono Raceway.

“Bryan was a great guy, great competitor, an extremely humble guy who carried himself with a lot of class and humility,” Graham Rahal told IndyCar.com.

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“I can’t imagine what Lauren [Stewart], his fiancée, and what his entire family is going through. We spent a lot of time with them at Indy this year. We were on the same row [on the starting grid], so we saw each other a lot.”

“I think the thing with Indy cars that is so intriguing for [Clauson] is it didn’t necessarily come easy,” Rahal continued. “He was always extremely intrigued, had a lot of questions about how to improve, what do I need to do and how do I need to do it?

“You don’t see that too often around here, even the rookies who come in here. There’s not a lot of guys that their ego can’t step out of the way enough for them to ask questions. Bryan was a guy who could easily do that, and that was amazing to me.

“You see the success and numbers he put up. There’s no doubt in my mind he probably would have broken every record that USAC had to break,” he added, “because he was well on his way at 27.”

“[Clauson] was having an unbelievable year, chasing a goal of 200 races in a year and had won like 25 percent of them,” recalled Ed Carpenter. “He’s going to be missed. He’s especially going to be missed here.

“I ran quite a bit with him in the 500 this year, after I was laps down and was just out finishing. We did some racing and he did a really good job,” Carpenter added. “He had come a long way from his rookie 500. I was proud to see how much ground he had made up here in the 500 with limited experience. He was a real racer. He had a bright future ahead of him.”

Added Ryan Hunter-Reay: “You could tell how much he loved racing because he was racing all the time. It didn’t matter what it was. It takes a lot of heart, a lot of guts, a lot of courage to have your talent in sprint cars and in dirt and in this and that, and then come to Indy and jump right into the deep end of the pool at 230 mph in an Indy car.

“That’s just the kind of driver he was. He was flat out and he had loads of talent. And even more important than all that, he was just an absolutely great person.”

The passing of Clauson is the second loss for the IndyCar community in two years after the 2015 death of Justin Wilson, and particularly stinging as IndyCar prepares to race at Pocono, where Wilson had his incident that would ultimately prove fatal.

With all that in mind, the IndyCar drivers once again reflected on the risk inherent in their sport and what it’s like to lose a colleague.

“The biggest reaction is just shock when incidents do come along, where guys don’t recover, whether it’s Bryan, Jason Leffler, Justin Wilson last year,” commented Carpenter. “At the same time, for me, I know I love doing this and I know how much those guys loved doing it as well. I think the best way for us to honor them is to carry on.

“It’s hard for a lot of people to understand how we do this, but we love racing. Bryan loved racing. It’s so early, but I’m happy to know that he went out doing what he loved to do and he was leading while he was doing it.”

“It’s extremely difficult. It’s devastating,” agreed Hunter-Reay. “Losing Dan [Wheldon] then Justin, who was a really close friend, and then Bryan. I spent a lot of time with [Clauson] over the month [of May], my kids playing with his dogs and stuff, every day after practice seeing him out in the bus lot, catching up. It’s really tough.

“It’s something that you can never get used to and you never become accustomed to it. The good thing is I’m behind the wheel of a race car today, which is definitely the best place to be at a time like this.

“Our thoughts, prayers, condolences go out to him and his family, a great, great bunch of people. Just a great race car driver and a great person.”

Even those who didn’t know Clauson that well mourned his loss and were in awe of his accomplishments across the world of motorsports.

“I remember talking to him this year. He had done like 32 races before the 500 already and he was going back and forth that week. I definitely couldn’t do that. I never even tried,” remarked Tony Kanaan.

“I would say he was a natural talent,” he added. “We bring people up after they pass. We only tell good things about people then, they become more famous after they are gone, but I think the racing community will always appreciate what he did.”