Dan Wheldon 1978-2011

This has nothing to do with Michigan Football, but it has everything to do with sport. Indy Car racing is one of the most fiercely competitive sports in the world. It's also one of the most dangerous.

In football, life is never really at risk when two teams get together to play a game. But in racing, these drivers put their life at risk every time they get behind the wheel. Is it foolish? Yes. But some people are just wired that way. Regardless, when a driver loses his life, it's tough to reason with the logic. Death and auto-racing are forever intertwined. It just comes with the job. But that doesn't make it any more bearable when it happens.

Fellow Michigan blog and bigger racing fan that I, The Blog That Yost Built put together a great post about Dan Wheldon. I've always been a modest racing fan, open-wheel racing to be more specific. But I wasn't able to watch the race yesterday, so I didn't hear about Dan's death until after the fact. I did catch the highlights of the race, including this clip below, where the 19 cars remaining in the race when it was cancelled did a 5-lap tribute to their fallen friend.

This is one of the most unique and touchings moments I've ever seen in all of sport. Kudos to the commentators for letting the moment go uninterrupted, and to ABC for taking their network bug off the screen.



Dan Wheldon is survived by his two sons Sebastian and Oliver, and his wife Susie.

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