The perfect storm: A high-banked oval crowded with the largest field of the season. Inexperienced or impatient drivers racing at more than 220 mph. Absolutely no room for error.
What was supposed to be a season-ending showdown at Las Vegas Motor Speedway became instead a script for disaster Sunday: a fiery 15-car crash that killed popular two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon and left the shaken auto racing community to deal with uncomfortable questions.
The sleek, open-wheel machines of IndyCar had not raced at the Las Vegas track since 2000, and the now-defunct Champ Car Series was last there in 2005. None of the drivers had raced an IndyCar there since the track’s 2006 reconfiguration added “progressive banking” designed to increase side-by-side racing.
So there was some initial fretting when second-year IndyCar chairman Randy Bernard announced a $5 million payday to any moonlighting driver who could win the race.
Bernard had hoped to land a superstar or two from the fender-rubbing NASCAR circuit. But nobody bit, despite interest from NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne, X-Games star Travis Pastrana and former CART champion Alex Zanardi.
“Hopefully they’ll pick someone competent enough to drive those things because it is an IndyCar,” Penske driver Will Power said shortly after the prize was announced. “You can’t rub panels. You rub wheels, and someone’s going flying.”
Kahne said Monday team owner Rick Hendrick was against his participation, and Hendrick confirmed it. Kahne’s lack of experience in an IndyCar made it virtually impossible for him to win. That left only Wheldon, winner of 14 races on ovals in IndyCar, including the Indy 500 in May, to be eligible for the $5 million prize.
Because IndyCar is in the final year of racing its current car design, teams had expendable inventory. It led to 34 entries in the field.
Who were these new drivers? Men and women without much experience at IndyCar’s top level. It was the fourth start for Wade Cunningham, who was in the thick of the action where the accident started. It was the third career start for Pippa Mann (surgery on burned pinkie) and the 20th for JR Hildebrand (bruised sternum), who both were released from a Las Vegas hospital Monday.
They all turn out for the Indy 500 too, and the speeds on that oval are faster than they were at Las Vegas. But Indianapolis is a relatively flat track, is a mile longer than Las Vegas, and drivers have three weeks of track time to prepare for the race.
The drivers had 3 hours, 15 minutes of practice time over three days to get ready for Las Vegas. They were not on the track at all Saturday.
