October 20, 2011
By Nicholas Schwartz
The horrific crash that took the life of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas on Sunday was one of those moments that forces you to question the point of auto racing, and to justify your own fanhood of a sport that can sometimes be so harrowing and brutal.
On a day when a new IndyCar Champion was supposed to be celebrated, the sport instead experienced one of its darkest hours.
In the aftermath, only difficult questions remain, with no real answers in sight. Questions of why IndyCar went ahead with the race in the first place, when many drivers had expressed their belief that Las Vegas was too dangerous a venue to hold an event. And questions about what lies ahead for IndyCar, a series which will certainly have to be overhauled before returning in 2012.
For those following the race this weekend, the terrifying and gut-wrenching images didn't just start on Lap 11, rather, they began with the first practice Thursday—when Danica Patrick topped the charts at 224 miles per hour. The oval at Las Vegas presents IndyCars with little challenges, and drivers are able to run wide open around the entirety of the track, achieving speeds unheard of at other circuits.
The ease of navigating the track at Las Vegas led many drivers to speculate that the race on Sunday would be “hairy” and “dangerous,” as the pack would likely be racing wheel-to-wheel.
Dario Franchitti, and Will Power were particularly outspoken after qualifying. Power called running at Las Vegas “brainlessly easy,” and asserted that “flat-out oval track racing is ridiculous” to reporters.
Franchitti, who had to switch an engine after he was unable to produce competitive speeds, admitted post-race his trepidation about the event.
“Within five laps people started to do crazy stuff. I wanted no part of it…. I said before this is not a suitable track,” Franchitti said. “You can’t get away from anybody. One small mistake and you have a massive wreck.”
No one expects a crash to result in this sort of catastrophe, but Wheldon’s death reminds us all of the danger inherent in motorsports. While it’s anyone’s guess how IndyCar will respond, NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson condemned racing on ovals and called for a move to a strict road course-only schedule.
"I wouldn't run them on ovals. There's just no need to," Johnson told reporters Monday in Charlotte. "Those cars are fantastic for street circuits, for road courses…. Hopefully they can learn from it and make those cars safer on ovals somehow.”
Dale Earnhardt’s death sparked a renewed focus on safety within NASCAR, with tangible results such as the implementation of safer barriers and the HANS device that have significantly cut down on the number of severe injuries in stock car racing. IndyCar faces a set of challenges unique to itself, as safer barriers aren’t much help when cars are flying through the air at obscene speeds.
The design of the cars simply isn’t suitable for high-speed oval racing. IndyCars are situated so low to the ground and have such a combination of downforce and horsepower that -- when left unchecked, as they were at Las Vegas -- drivers can exceed speeds of 225 or 230 miles per hour. Given the fact that the field is racing two, three and four wide around many ovals and the slightest touch between car tires can send an IndyCar into flight, it’s perhaps surprising that this sort of terrible accident doesn’t occur more often.
The obvious solution is to scrap half of the current IndyCar schedule and race exclusively on road and street courses, as Johnson suggested.
The problem is, IndyCar might not be able to support itself financially under that model. Champ Car is the last series to run a non-oval schedule for the entirety of its season, and it promptly went under and merged with IndyCar. It’s unclear whether or not fans will support such a schedule, and with Formula 1 returning to the United States in 2012, viewers may just choose to follow the world’s most watched racing series for their road course racing fix.
Regardless of how such changes might affect the IndyCar brand, however, administrators need to consider the safety and welfare of their drivers above all else.
As we remember Dan Wheldon and all the inspiring contributions he made to the sport, and to the lives of countless fans, let us not forget to learn from his misfortune in an effort to ensure that racing tragedies become a thing of the past.
If you would like to learn more about Nicholas, please check out his web site at Sports By Schwartz. Nicholas is a Managing editor and sportswriter for The Duke Chronicle at Duke University.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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