Seldom has winning a championship carried such heartache.
Dario Franchitti had just won a third consecutive Izod IndyCar Series title, yet he sat in his race car sobbing after a massive wreck killed his friend, Dan Wheldon.
Adding to the agony was that some drivers had voiced concern that despite safety advances in motor racing, a danger lurked at Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that rose above the sport’s inherent risk.
There were 34 cars traveling 220 mph or faster in a close pack on the banked, 1.5-mile oval in IndyCar’s last race of the season.
“We all know this is part of the sport,” driver Oriol Servia said of the danger. “We all had a bad feeling about this place in particular just because of the high banking and how easy it was to go flat” out on the throttle.
The race was 11 laps old when Wheldon, 33, was caught up in a fiery, 15-car pileup that killed him.
As the debate about IndyCar’s safety widened Monday, fans brought various items to a makeshift memorial at one gate of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the Englishman had won the Indianapolis 500 in May for the second time.
An autopsy revealed Wheldon died of head injuries.
For Franchitti, Sunday’s tragedy evoked memories of 1999 when Greg Moore, Franchitti’s best friend, was killed in a racing accident at what is now Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
After a seven-year absence, IndyCar plans to return to the two-mile Fontana oval for a night race Sept. 15, 2012.
The safety debate centers on the fact that the IndyCar vehicles, which all have the same bodies and engines, can’t avoid so-called pack racing at very high speeds on a circuit as small and banked as the Las Vegas track. And any contact between the open-cockpit, Indy-style cars typically is dangerous.
The series’ 2012 schedule has not been announced, but IndyCar last week said the series planned to return to Las Vegas for its season finale next year.
IndyCar officials declined comment Monday on whether they plan to re-evaluate that race or its safety procedures in general.
After Wheldon’s death was announced, Franchitti was asked about the safety concerns.
“We’ll discuss it and we’ll sort it out,” he said, “but now’s not the time.”
PIT STOPS
IndyCar drivers Pippa Mann (burned finger) and JR Hildebrand (sternum) were released from the hospital after overnight treatment for injuries suffered in Sunday’s crash. … Five-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson called on IndyCar to stop racing on ovals in the wake of Wheldon’s death.
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