Tragedy strikes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

October 17, 2011 by Kaitlin G. Morgan 

Deadly crash occurs amidst concerns about track safety, speed

Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon died Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after his vehicle was involved in a fiery 15-car pileup during lap 13 of the Izod IndyCar World Championship.

Wheldon, 33, a two-time Indy 500 winner, was airlifted to University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead due to fatal injuries.

A multiple car pile-up was triggered after contact ahead set off a chain reaction that eliminated Australian driver Will Power from title contention.

“It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible,” said Danica Patrick, who was making her final full-season IndyCar start. “There was debris everywhere across the whole track. You could smell the smoke, you could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered.”

Three other drivers, including Power, were also injured as a result of the crash.

The track was red-flagged for approximately two-hours when Wheldon’s car flew over another vehicle and landed in the catch fence just outside of turn two.

“I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ryan Briscoe said. “The debris we all had to drive through on the following lap looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there’s just stuff everywhere. Crazy.”

Drivers were called into a closed-door briefing for 25 minutes prior to the announcement of Wheldon’s death being released to the media.

“IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries,” IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race.”

Drivers participated in a five-lap salute in Wheldon’s honor at which time 77, Wheldon’s number, was the only number to appear on the Speedway’s scoreboard.

As the driver’s returned to their vehicles to begin the tribute laps, the speedway’s public address system played the songs “Danny Boy” and “Amazing Grace.”

“Everybody in IndyCar died a little today,” said Chip Ganassi, Wheldon’s former car owner.

Wheldon is survived by his wife, Susie, and two sons, Sebastion, 2, and 7-month-old Oliver.