Rip. :(

 

Heard he had passed..wow..

 

Such a shame.. Ive watched alot of racing, and haven't seen a crash quite that bad in a long time. Such a shame, seemed like a really good guy, and he sure was a talented race car driver. So young too... and two young children...

Like the 5 lap tribute IRL is doing instead of finishing the race. Classy.

I'll say this though, you've really got to question the IRL for their promotion for this race to pay Dan a 5 million dollar bonus if he could win this race from starting in last. Junk like that doesn't belong in competitive top racing series.

Either way, such a shame.. way to young. IRL really needs to do something to up the safety in their cars. Hopefully the new car they are using next year helps, although in a crash like that, it would have probably been impossible to survive regardless in those type of cars.

 

That sucks......... RIP

 

R.I.P. Mr. Wheldon
Nasty crash

Anyone catch the crash by Jimmie Johnson last night? He's hurting today. Yea, he walked away, but 10 years ago, hd may not have.

 

Wheldon had a on board camera too, has anybody seen that footage yet? They cut away just as he was entering the wreck.

 

It was a viscious hit as well. It's a great example of the safety changes NASCAR has made since they lost Earnhardt though. Sure, a nascar is alot easier to make safer over an open wheel car, but IRL needs to do something IMO. The amazing part of Johnson's crash (aside from him walking away) is that the video clearly shows how well those safer barriers work. The give in that wall when his car hits is incredible. I agree though, without the improvements in the car, the HANS device, and those new walls, the racing would could have been mourning the loss of Jimmie Johnson, and Dan Wheldon this weekend.

I don't think it's ever going to surface. I thought ESPN did a great job throughout the telecast after the wreck as well. Classy. Im guessing everyone at the track pretty much knew it was over for Dan after that wreck. My guess is you'll never see that footage. Partly because those in car camera's usually always cut out once a car flips, they must loose their signal or something. Either way, I'm not so sure I'd want to see it anyways.

As I said earlier, IRL needs to do something to those cars. Im sure even just a bar that goes on over top of the drivers head after he's in the car. At least in an impact like that there's a chance of that part absorbing the impact, rather than the drivers head. To me, when I first saw the wreck I didn't think there was any way Dan was going to survive as his car flipped, essentially slamming his head into the wall/fence. Theyve got to do something to give extra protection for the head there.

 

​33 years old.....shame....RIP

 

The footage Steve is referring to is in the second video of the original post.

 

sad for his family.....RIP!

 

Horrible accident , I think anyone who saw that knew it wasnt going to be a good outcome for Dan :(

 

IRL has to feel how I feel...to only have 1 Death in that crash was amazing. So sad, very sad!

 

No... the footage he's referring to (I assume), and the footage I'm referring to is the in car view through the entire crash. That's the footage you'll never see. Whether its going to get locked away or tossed out, or if the footage is lost due to loss of signal from the car flipping and the accident itself.

It's kind of eery though to watch that little bit of in car footage knowing those are the last few moments, the last few things that he saw before the accident/he died.

 

Totally agree that creeped me out too. A puff of smoke and then they panned away.
They were searching for him right before the horrible accident. Yikes.

 

The footage I was wanting to see, I think I found. Pauls 2nd clip didn't work for me, but I watched a 4 min clip on YouTube last night and about 3/4 of the way thru, you see him hitting the LR tire and going airborne. You also see Will Power in the mess also, don't care if I ever see that again. Nothing but NASTY.

 

Talk to a guy today who works at the track. He was telling pieces were flying everywhere on the track and he was getting hit by pieces of the cars. he showed me a pic of Wheldon car and you could not even tell it was a car at one point. Horrible event that took place.