October 16, 2011. It started off as a simple Sunday for me. I woke up, ate breakfast, and then went to church. I came home at noon and sat down to eat. The race had been on Saturday night, so, instead, I watched some NFL games. Around 3 o'clock, I saw something on the bottomline about the IndyCar Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I planned on watching the race, but I got sidetracked and forgot about it. Even though I was unable to catch the race, what happened in it forever changed my life.
The race started off normally with Marty Reid giving his introduction for the event. It was the last race of the 2011 season and the title was on the line. Dario Franchitti and Will Power were going for the championship and we were expecting a shootout from beginning to end. Dan Wheldon was also trying to win the race because he would receive 2.5 million dollars and one lucky fan would also receive 2.5 million dollars. The field contained 34 cars, which was an enormous amount for an IndyCar event. Even with drivers complaints of safety, the command was given and the engines were fired.
On the warm-up laps, Scott Goodyear, former IndyCar driver and announcer in the booth, talked to Dan Wheldon on the radio. Wheldon was confident in his ability to win the race. His team members and many others were as well. After this conversation, the green flag waved and the cars shot into turn 1. The cars were already three-wide by the time they reached turn 2 and the speeds continued to grow. In turn 3 on lap 10, an on-board shot of Dan Wheldon was shown and the mayhem began. As the cars went into turn 1, a flash of smoke popped up in front of Wheldon. Cars went sliding across the track and Dan, along with Will Power, J.R. Hildebrand, and others, went flying. Dan hit the catchfence and careened down across the track and onto the backstretch. Marty Reid, Scott Goodyear, and Eddie Cheever, the announcers in the booth, were alarmed by the magnitude of the incident. In total, 15 cars were involved. After some drivers were released from the medical center, they were interviewed along with some of the drivers left running. The ones released were keeping their thoughts with Dan Wheldon and the drivers still running were keeping their thoughts with all the drivers involved. Shortly after Dario Franchitti was interviewed, a medical helicopter was shown leaving the track, but nobody knew who was in it. A few minutes passed before Marty Reid went down to Jamie Little, who confirmed that Dan Wheldon was the driver who had been lifted by the helicopter. After a two hour red flag situation, Dan Wheldon was confirmed dead by IndyCar officials. Because of this, the drivers held a five lap salute to honor Wheldon. On that day in 2011, the life of Dan Wheldon ended right before our eyes.
When Dan Wheldon won the 2011 Indianapolis 500, I was ecstatic. He put a lot of hard work into it and deserved to win it. I was behind him then and wish that he was still alive to continue winning in the IndyCar Series. Looking back on the events of his career, I'm glad I am able to say that I watched Dan Wheldon race an IndyCar. Marty Reid ended that day perfectly. "People ask me why, when I sign off I say 'until we meet again'. Because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon."
Credits:
-Full Race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAYIbAvKTdI&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LLoJuXstqkLuCW91eAlI6j5g
-Stats and Information:
indycar.com
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