Dan Wheldon Crash: How Will Shocking Death Change Sport's Safety Regulations?

If there's any silver lining to be drawn from the dark and tragic cloud hovering over the death of Dan Wheldon on Sunday, it's the prospect of improved safety features in the Izod IndyCar Series and the sport of open-wheel racing as a whole.

Wheldon had spent months working closely with Dallara Automobili, an Italian chassis manufacturer, to develop a safer car for competition. As a result, he had been chosen to drive a new chassis in 2012, when it was set to make its debut.

The new chassis is specifically designed to minimize the chances of cars launching into the air, as Wheldon's did, with additionally bodywork added on to cover the rear tires.

Just as important, though, are the changes that can, should and probably will be made to evaluating the safety of a given track. Several high-profile drivers, including three-time series champion Dario Franchitti and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, expressed concern about the conditions at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway before and after the race. Franchitti was one of several drivers who complained about the unusually high speeds in practice, which—combined with the steep banking angles and the lack of familiarity with track, as this was the first IndyCar race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway—would make for potentially lethal conditions.

The sort of conditions that could very well have contributed to the 15-car calamity that cost Wheldon his life.

The 34-car field was also unusually large for an IndyCar race, with only the Indy 500 stuffing more cars onto the track. Throw that many cars onto an unfamiliar track at speeds exceeding 220 miles per hour and, well, you get the picture.

The hope, then, is that the fledgling IndyCar Series will take every precaution, from instituting the mandatory use of safer equipment in the cars to conducting a more thorough survey of every potential track to trimming down the fields to better fit the tracks, to further minimize the chances of another tragedy taking place on a speedway.