Dan Wheldon Crash: IndyCar Star's Death Sheds a Grim Light on Auto Racing

As a fan of NASCAR from the time I was a child, the allure of living on the edge has been the rush that all the fans and drivers are searching and yearning for.

While most of the time the races are just fun and games, there are sober occasions where the entire racing world as we know it gets turned on its head.

It’s times like these when I hearken back to a quote attributed to Ernest Hemingway that strikes truer with every passing day.

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”

As a fan who watched the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. live in 2001, Wheldon’s death and the horrific crash that cost him his life will no doubt bring a new light on the safety of the IndyCar Series like Earnhardt’s death did to NASCAR.

Fellow IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe told CBS Sports about the scene on the track following the huge crash:

"

I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it. The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there's just stuff everywhere. Crazy.

"

"Crazy" is a word I used when I saw the crash for the first time myself, and the pure anarchy that happened in that crash shows that major changes need to happen in the sport of IndyCar, and fast!

NASCAR has implemented rule after rule to slow their cars down, and as much as the fans complain about the effect it has on the sport, there is no doubt that the rule changes make the sport much safer.

IndyCar is trying to sell itself to the American mainstream with its speed an excitement, but unless the series wants to become better known as the place where horrific crashes take place, they need to slow the cars down or not race on tracks that allow such high speeds.

The only reality certain right now is that Dan Wheldon can’t die in vain, and IndyCar needs to do whatever it takes to implement the changes to avoid these kinds of accidents anymore.

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