Man I'm still in shock over it. I didn't have any particular driver I followed in IRL except Wheldon. I would always wonder where he finished if he was running but outside of that I did not have a driver. You really could not see what happened with his car because of all the smoke, debris and fire but if you watch the fence you can tell what happened and it wasn't good. As soon as I saw the other angle from the backstretch cam and saw that fence post shudder I knew right then it wasn't going to be a good outcome. He will be greatly missed, such an engaging driver to the fans. He never forgot about the little people so to speak, he was known to go out and meet fans tailgating or camping out.
Very lucky they didn't lose 2 drivers yesterday. I really thought Meira, IIRC, got the same type of impact as Wheldon did and in other pics, you can see his car looks just as bad. He hit the catch fence cockpit first also it looks like.
My only issue is that these drivers had warned IRL that something bad was brewing before the race. Even Wheldon himself was not at ease. When will the drivers fears be taken more to heart? Too many cars and too fast of speeds. Those involved had very little time to react while running wide open at 220-230 mph. Spotters were yelling to get low but by the time they yelled it the cars were already plowing headlong into the fray. You also had 34 cars out there, their normal race see's something like 26. So you had a handful of cars out there with drivers who simply had no business out there right in the middle of the fray. Too many cars also lead to the track being entirely blocked for the last handful of cars in the back. Look back at Loudon for the IRL, most all of the drivers were screaming for the race to not go back green. They were asking for it to be called 8 laps short due to the rain falling. Every single one of them said that the track was too dangerous, IRL threw the green flag and caused a pileup coming to the green. They then called the race. Go further back to Texas a long time ago. The drivers basically went on strike to get the race canceled because the speeds were too fast, they had driver's blacking out but IRL was bound and determined to run the race anyways. NASCAR isn't immune to it, the same thing has happened with NASCAR where drivers worried yet NASCAR did very little about it. First Texas race, drivers said Turn 1 was too dicey, waded up half the field Turn 1 Lap 1. All-Star race in what, 96? Several drivers said the track wasn't ready, still wet from the rain. NASCAR threw the green flag and waded up most of the field in Turn 1 Lap 1. Until recently Dega and Daytona really brought out the driver fears. They didn't like racing in such a tight bunch like the IRL guys are currently doing on 1.5 tracks. NASCAR did very little to break up the pack, the drivers instead figured out how to fix it for now. Time to listen to the drivers more, it's their lives on the line out there. Obviously nobody is making them get in that car if they are scared but the head honcho's running the show's need to stop brushing off the driver fears. That includes Bruton Smith who is THE worst for telling the drivers to stop being babies and go race.
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