IndyCar Honors the Late Dan Wheldon on His 10-Year Death Anniversary

October 16 to 23, 2011, marked the darkest week in the world of motorsport. It all started when 2005 IndyCar champion Dan Wheldon was involved in a multi-car crash. At least 15 cars wrecked at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and the Briton was one of many victims.

Now, it has been a decade since his tragic passing and IndyCar continues to remember him to this day. On that fateful day, IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard challenged him to win the race from the back of the grid. Over here, the grand prize was a cool $5 million that would’ve been split between the winning driver and a lucky fan.

Needless to say, Wheldon decided that he was up for the challenge. Unfortunately, he was left frustrated because his car was a little slower than his rivals. So, he was hoping that the issues would be resolved quickly, so he could progress up the grid quickly.

What happened to Dan Wheldon during the incident?

When the race kicked off, things ran fairly normally for the pack. However, things took a turn for the worse on lap 11, when 15 cars were wiped out between turns one and two. Around the time, Wheldon was running down in 24th in a 34-car grid and making decent progress.

Everything was triggered when Wade Cunningham clipped James Hinchcliffe. From there, the situation spiraled out of control, and Wheldon jinked to the left-hand side of the track to avoid the wreck. Unfortunately, his task was made more difficult when Vitor Meira spun and hit E. J. Viso and Charlie Kimball. Those two drivers ended up right in Wheldon’s trajectory, so he slowed a little. Sadly, it wasn’t enough, and he hit Kimball’s car at 165 mph. This launched him nearly 325 ft in the air and into the catchfence.

The car ran along the catchfence above the concrete wall and collided with a fence post. As a result of the impact, the post pierced the cockpit and struck his helmet at 30Gs lateral, 47Gs longitudinal, and −25Gs vertical. After he was extricated from the car, Wheldon was airlifted to hospital. Tragically, he was pronounced dead on arrival, and officials elected to abandon the race. Unfortunately, he would not be the last IndyCar fatality, as Justin Wilson was killed in a 2015 accident.

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