IndyCar: Dan Wheldon tragedy – Reflections of a middle schooler

It has been 10 years since the tragic accident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway which took the life of IndyCar champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon.

2005 IndyCar champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon was tragically killed in a 15-car pileup at Las Vegas Motor Speedway exactly 10 years ago today in what was supposed to be the 2011 IndyCar season finale.

Wheldon, who did not compete full-time in 2011, shockingly won the Indy 500 after leading only lap 200 of 200 in his #98 Bryan Herta Autosport Honda.

A crash by the driver who replaced him behind the wheel of the #4 Panther Racing Honda after the 2010 season, J.R. Hildebrand, while leading in the final turn on the final lap led to the most memorable Indy 500 finish there has ever been and will ever be.

Wheldon, who had ironically finished in second place in the #4 Honda in 2009 and 2010, had nothing lined up for the remainder of the 2011 season, but with IndyCar announcing the GoDaddy Challenge for the championship decider at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Las Vegas, Nevada, he had the opportunity to make a return to the cockpit.

The 33-year-old Briton pursued that opportunity and ended up with a chance to split a $5 million jackpot with one lucky fan if he were to go from last to first and win the season finale.

He got a nice dress rehearsal at Kentucky Speedway, as Sam Schmidt Motorsports made him Alex Tagliani’s replacement behind the wheel of the #77 Honda and he ironically never got the opportunity to qualify. He finished in 14th place after starting in last (29th).

The season finale would feature 34 cars, the most in a single race in nearly a decade and a half.

It was a recipe for disaster, and many knew it. And unfortunately, those who knew it were proven right after the race’s first 10 laps, which would be the final 10 laps of competition of the 2011 season and of Wheldon’s life.

Now 10 years after his passing, things have certainly changed in IndyCar, many for the better. But complacency in a sport where cars reach speeds in excess of 230 miles per hour is not something to get hooked on.

As human beings, we need to move forward, and there’s no doubt that we have done that. That, of course, is a lot easier said than done for most, especially for his wife Susie and young sons Sebastian and Oliver.

But at the same time, as race fans, we can’t allow those few seconds to become too distant of a memory to the point where we forget about them — as much as we would like to believe they never existed.

I was in middle school at the time of Wheldon’s crash, and this was the first fatal racing accident that I had watched live. To be frank, I didn’t think fatalities in racing were possible anymore. I was truly naive enough to believe that these kinds of things were all “in the past” and that safety measures were maxed out after the tragedies of years gone by and lessons learned as a result.

It was the first time that I really understood, watching any kind of sport I enjoyed, that there was not and will never be time for complacency in regard to safety. So Sunday, October 16, 2011 hurt a lot more than I ever could have imagined, because what had happened was, to me, impossible.

The following year, one of the writing assignments in school was a memoir. With the crash still a fresh wound despite a relatively clean 2012 season, I knew exactly what to write about — which was quite rare for me in regard to any kind of school writing assignment at that time.

The following is from a memoir completed on Monday, January 21, 2013. It was first publicized on Wednesday, October 16, 2019.

"October 16th, 2011. It was going to be the absolute best day of my life. The final race of the 2011 IZOD Indycar Series was at a high-speed tri-oval track in Las Vegas, Nevada. The battle for the 2011 championship was as tight as cattle.10:30 AM. Church had just ended. I was thrilled that all I had to do now was wait for the big 4:00 race. That was the only thing I had to do. But, then it hit me that I had to wait for 5 1/2 hours, which wasn’t exactly a drive from Reading to Allentown.3:30 PM. The race broadcast had just come on Channel 6, ABC. The butterflies in my stomach had started to fly quicker as the seconds ticked by. I marveled at the amazing, giant 1.5-mile oval as it was shown on the television. Five hours down, thirty minutes to go before the green flag would wave. Only 1.8 thousand more seconds to wait. Tick, tock.4:00 PM. I turned up the volume so that the television blared the most famous words in motorsports. “Drivers start your engines!” proclaimed a young man as the field of 34 cars roared to life in a split second. The butterflies in my stomach continued to fly, but their flight speed increased each second as I watched the 34 well-built machines circle the track for a few warm-up laps.4:05 PM. The drivers lined up in 17 rows side by side off of turn four. “Green! Green! Green!” proclaimed the spotter of one of the cars. At once, 34 roaring monsters began to accelerate. 180. 190. 200. 210. 220 miles per hour they all went as they rumbled into turn one. The margin was 2.5 seconds from 1st place to 34th place. The field was packed tight, with the two championship contenders, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, running in 17th and 18th positions, respectively.4:10 PM. The television had gone to one of their on-board cameras with one of the cars. The car they currently had an on-board camera on was the car of series veteran Dan Wheldon. He had started in the back, 34th position, and had advanced 10 spots in as many laps. As I watched from his point of view the car circling the track, I saw something out of the corner of my eye that caught my attention. Gray clouds began rising up from a few cars way in front of Wheldon. The race broadcasters saw this too, so they switched from the onboard camera back to the normal race view mode. The screen went black, or so I thought. But in the midst of all that blackness, I saw red, orange, and yellow. Then I saw what all of those colors were. The crash began, full-force.Cars flying through the airSmokingSpinning across the trackSmokingCars flying through the airSplitting apart like woodCars flying through the airSmokingScreeching across the trackSmokingCars flying through the airSparks and flames awakeningCars flying through the airSmokingCars smacking the wall at 220 miles per hourSmokingCars flying through the airFire being spat across the trackCars flying through the airSmokingSmoking.4:15 PM. The race was stopped as the red flag came out on lap 13 of 200 after fifteen cars, the No. 12 car of Will Power, the No. 77 car of Dan Wheldon, the No. 4 car of JR Hildebrand, the No. 14 car of Vitor Meira, the No. 83 car of Charlie Kimball, the No. 30 car of Pippa Mann, the No. 8 car of Paul Tracy, the No. 22 car of Townsend Bell, the No. 17 car of Wade Cunningham, the No. 57 car of Tomas Scheckter, the No. 18 car of James Jakes, the No. 19 car of Alex Lloyd, the No. 59 car of EJ Viso, the No. 44 car of Buddy Rice, and the No. 15 car of Jay Howard had been demolished during the chaotic wreck. All 19 of the remaining cars that were intact drove into the pits and removed themselves from their cars. All of the drivers, even those involved in the wreck, were asked to attend a brief drivers’ meeting. All but one of the drivers were in attendance. The one driver who wasn’t there was being flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.4:20 PM. It was announced that the driver who was airlifted to a nearby hospital was Dan Wheldon. Was he okay? Was he injured? Would he ever drive an IndyCar again? Those were some of the flashing thoughts that conquered my brain for the next hour and forty minutes.6:00 PM. The “race” broadcast was over with still no word on how Dan Wheldon was doing. ABC  News came on in a flash. I sat watching as ABC News reported on the Philadelphia Eagles game from earlier that day. I figured there had to be something reported about the colossal IndyCar wreck from a few hours before. So, I continued to watch the broadcast patiently.6:05 PM. I continued to wait for even just a blurb about the IndyCar wreck.6:10 PM. The broadcast had begun talking about a robbery as I was now getting annoyed that nothing had been said about the wreck.6:15 PM. I ran to my computer and turned on IndyCar Radio.6:20 PM. I listened to the IndyCar Radio broadcast which only mentioned the race and the crash.“IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and team owners, has decided to end the race. In honor of Dan Wheldon, the drivers have decided to do a five-lap salute in his honor. It will take place in approximately ten minutes. Thank you,” stated the CEO of IndyCar, Randy Bernard.6:25 PM. As I listened to the rumble of the nineteen cars circle the track for five laps, I couldn’t help but think to myself; Why did this happen? Wasn’t this supposed to be a day of celebration for Dario Franchitti, who won the championship considering Will Power, the other title contender, had been involved in the wreck? I knew that the long 5-month offseason would be a long and hard time for all of the drivers and teams. I knew that getting back in the car the race after a fatal accident, even though it had happened five months earlier, would be tough. All of the drivers knew that it was a very rare occurrence and that it cannot let it bother them forever.“It’s a fear that we all have in the back of our heads. That day it was brought to the front. You have to put it to the back of your head,” said Marco Andretti, one of the drivers not involved in the wreck.“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought Dan in the last four months. My job when I get in the car is not to do that. My job is to clear my mind, to focus 100% on the job at hand and if you can’t do it, you don’t want to do it, and you’re not able to do it, unfortunately you’re probably in the wrong business,” stated Dario Franchitti, 4-time IndyCar Series champion."

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Susie, Sebastian, Oliver, and the rest of Dan’s family and friends as they reflect on and remember his life and legacy.