Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon died Sunday at Las VegasMotor Speedway after his car became ensnarled in a fiery 15-car pileup, flewover another vehicle and landed in a catch fence just outside turn 2. The33-year-old racer was a two-time Indy winner, including this year's race.
Three other drivers, including championship contender WillPower, were hurt in the pileup during Lap 13.Weldon was airlifted from the track to University MedicalCenter; about two hours later, his colleagues were told of his death.
"IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passedaway from unsurvivable injuries," IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said."Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its driversand owners, have decided to end the race."
In his honor, drivers took part in a five-lap salute aroundthe oval.
IndyCar has not had a fatality since Paul Dana was killed atHomestead in 2006, during a crash in a morning warmup.
Sunday's wreck left Townsend Bell upside down whilesmoldering cars and debris littered the track nearly halfway up thestraightaway of the 1.5-mile oval.
The accident appeared to start when Wade Cunningham's carswerved on the track and JR Hildebrand drove over the left rear of Cunningham'scar. Hildebrand appeared to go airborne, and Cunningham's car shot up into thewall, setting off a chain reaction among the cars behind him.
Some of those cars slowed, others didn't, and others spun infront of Wheldon and Power. There was so much chaos on the track it was hard totell who was driving what car.
Power appeared to fly over Alex Lloyd's car, rolling intothe catchfence and landing on its right side. His in-car camera showed one ofthe front tires coming toward him in the cockpit.
Wheldon then appeared to drive over Paul Tracy's car. Tracyseemed to be slowing but Weldon did not. He went airborne and spun into thefence.
The track was red-flagged following the accidents whilecrews worked on fences and removed smashed cars.
Wheldon started in the back of the pack but quickly workedhis way through the 34-car field before the wreck.
Despite winning this year's Indy 500, Wheldon couldn't puttogether a full-time ride this season. He landed in Sunday's race thanks toBernard's promotion that promised $5 million to any moonlighting driver whocould win the IndyCar season finale at Vegas. Although there were no takers,Bernard refused to scrap the idea and Wheldon was declared eligible for theprize.
It was Wheldon's 134th career start, but only the third ofthe season for the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.
"It was like a movie scene which they try to make asgnarly as possible," said Danica Patrick, making her final IndyCar start."It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell thesmoke, 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 carsscattered.
Drivers had been concerned about the high speeds at thetrack, where they were hitting nearly 225 mph during practice.
Their concerns became reality when contact on Turn 2 sentcars flying through the air, crashing into each other and into the outside walland catch fence.
"I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it,"Ryan Briscoe said. "The debris we all had to drive through the lap later,it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there werejust pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no carattached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your firstthoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there's just stuff everywhere.Crazy."
Also injured in the crash were Hildebrand and Pippa Mann.Both will remain in the hospital overnight. IndyCar said Mann was being treatedfor a burn to her right pinkie finger and will be released Monday morning, andHildebrand was awake and alert but will be held overnight for furtherevaluation
The accident spoiled what Bernard had hoped would be ashowcase event for the struggling IndyCar Series.
The second-year CEO worked the entire season on turning thefinale into a spectacle, and said he'd offer his resignation to the IndyCarboard of directors if ABC's broadcast didn't pull a .8 ranking. His goal was toimprove upon last year's season finale's horrible television rating and givethe series some momentum for what's hoped to be a strong season in 2013 withthe introduction of a new car and new manufacturers.
So Bernard poured everything into Las Vegas, renting thespeedway from owner Bruton Smith and agreeing to promote the event himself. Helanded enough sponsorship to at least break even on race, and the $5 millionchallenge bought him an enormous amount of publicity the entire year.
Bernard got the Las Vegas Strip to close to stage a paradeof cars, hosted industry parties and a blackjack tournament all to boostinterest in the race. He even got MGM Grand Resorts to offer a pair of ticketsto anyone staying this weekend in one of the chain's 14 properties.
But what was hoped to be a day of celebration quickly turnedsomber.