Perfect Storm: IndyCar's Las Vegas Nightmare

after chasing each other over the course of two thousand one hundred and eleven laps at sixteen different tracks on three continents dario frankie and will power are set to decide the 2011 izad indycar series championship today at las vegas motor speedway and how about dan weldon the 2011 indy 500 winner has a shot at a monster payday if he can come from the back to the front but to claim his share of the 5 million godaddy challenge the englishman must find a way to pass 33 race cars you were pretty you had some pretty uh candid comments about maybe how ridiculous the the racing is here at las vegas what can the fans expect exactly that man this is ridiculous sort of racing it's so crazy uh how tightly packed we are very tough very tough very hard i think we all got to look after each other out there you know is it gonna be too wide it's gonna be three wide will it spread out who knows this track is conducive to pack racing and um you know it's gonna make for a giant pack have a good safe race it's going to be very intense today it's going to be an intense one uh just want to congratulate you know indycar and everything they've done this weekend it's been a huge success so should be fun our analyst for today's race joseph newgarden makes for incredible speeds when everyone's punched together um it's fun for these guys i know they like this type of racing uh some don't as as will said you know it's kind of crazy running like this in just one big group but you know guys like weldon this is his specialty and he loves this stuff 34 cars 200 laps 300 miles at 220 plus miles an hour there's plenty on the line in the nevada desert today [Music] 2011 was a turning point for indy car the series future was its brightest in over 15 years the cart irl split in 1996 damaged open wheel racing tremendously before the two series reunified in 2008 a new ceo had just taken control that was making big changes to mold indycar into a new image with one series in strong leadership indycar was poised to grow for the first time in decades please start your engines drivers start your engines [Music] [Applause] the bright moments can turn dark so quickly such was the case on october 16 2011. in that day's race indycar hoped to create a new blueprint for the future the sun rose with overflowing optimism and by that night the series had been derailed after an unimaginable tragedy indycar's planes were thrown flaming into a fence and altered forever from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows one single race had a saga full of story lines come together in the most painful way one day was a symbolic end of an entire series one instant took the life of one of auto racing's brightest stars [Music] to understand the 2011 las vegas race you have to go back several years it was supposed to be the final chapter at the end of a messy 15 years and the start of something completely new [Music] in 1996 indycar racing was split into two different series cart in the indy racing league cart was a series that relied mostly on road courses and was reorganized as champ car in 2004 the irl was a series that raced mostly on ovals the two series split the fan base of indy car racing and covered the sport with an atmosphere of political infighting that drove away fans to everyone's relief the two series reunited in february 2008 when the irl absorbed champ car well as the commander of hate and open wheel racing i hate the fact that the indy 500 was screwed up 12 years ago i hate the fact that alex and artie and greg moore didn't get to run the indy 500 i hate the fact that nascar's lapped it several times but i love the fact that it's back together and i don't care about the last 12 years because we've done all that muckraking and beating people up and and let's go forward and try and have some good racing because we finally got everybody together we can identify this and i and i think there's a lot of reasons to be positive when the civil war ended reconstruction began and indycar racing would rebuild with a fresh leader in mid-2009 irl founder tony george was removed to ceo of the series the board of directors led by his sister and mother thought george was losing too much money to lead open wheels reconstruction an outsider was brought in my name is randy bernard and i'm the new ceo of the indy racing league before joining indycar bernard was the ceo of professional bull riders under his leadership the pbr grew from a small series of rodeos to a national presence with lots of sponsorships and events on network television if he could grow bull riding into a major sport in the 21st century it was believed that bernard could correct a series that had destroyed itself for decades at the time i was very content with the job i had as ceo of the professional bull writers and and i absolutely loved doing that but then i started looking in and doing some research on the irl and i saw tremendous potential and i felt like i could really make a difference i started with with nothing at the pbr and i was the only employee in 1995 and to see it grow i had to do everything i had to learn television merchandise marketing promotions and that's where i think that i can really come here and i mean the irl is so big already and it has so much opportunity i really see this as a chance just to have to reignite america on why irl is so exciting and then and the deep traditions of this this great sport as well bernard learned the series and set a direction to bring unity and move it far into the future he oversaw the iconic project which was designed to update the chassis and engine package the irl raced the same basic chassis since 2003 and had only honda as an engine provider since 2006. a new chassis was designed while bernard convinced chevrolet and lotus to enter the series their decision will determine the future of open wheel racing for 2012 and beyond they are making one of the biggest decisions in indy car history in the end i think what we've wound up with is a chassis that's great looking it gives us a variety of looks over the years it's very safe priority one but the thing that's most important to me is that it's reduced the cost by 40 percent for team owners that allows team owners that are currently in the sport to continue to participate and makes the sport more appealing to other team owners to come and join bernard wanted to promote indycar as the most diverse series in the world in terms of venues he believed the schedule should be 50 percent ovals 50 percent road and street courses and that it could eventually grow to 24 races it is important that the izod indycar series continue to strike a balance between ovals and non-ovals to maintain our claim to say that we're the most dry most diverse racing schedule in the world the 2011 schedule will feature eight ovals and nine non-ovals to highlight the two-headed nature of the schedule indycar created two championships within the overall series with the addition of the aj foyt oval championship trophy and the mario andretti road course championship after a full year under randy bernard's leadership 2011 was an opportunity for indycar to build a new identity moving forward what you were so successful at with pbr was building a brand it had an identity people knew what it was how do you hope to do that with the indycar league well in indycar you know through from 96 till this year was known as the iro and then you had champ car and and irl had the perception of being what made the terrible divorce so we blew that acronym up this year and we went back to indycar it's known around the world we have a hundred years of history with it why wouldn't we so now what we need to do is build our perception that our drivers are the best in the world which they are they're the best from the fastest most versatile race cars and race car drivers in the world and and that's very important that we define our sport that way because it differentiates us from everyone else i mean there is no other motorsport out there that runs road and street and oval short track super speedways at the speeds we do and most importantly bernard wanted indycar to become mainstream the splitted relegated indycar to a minor player in american sports but they had unmatched history 2011 would be the 100th anniversary of the indy 500 combining that with exciting racing and healthy teams 2011 was meant to be a breakout year for the new image of indycar indycar is entering a new and exciting era fortunately this brings opportunities with new venues and promoters that are fully aligned with our strategy moving forward we are committed to working with our partners and listening to our fans on what they want to grow indycar make no mistakes our goal is to grow indycar to a new pinnacle that has never been reached before with the plan laid out 2011 needed a grand finale worthy of such an important season they wanted an oval race to decide the championship with an atmosphere of excitement in one of the most dazzling cities in the country but months went by before the finale was actually confirmed when the 2011 schedule was released in september of 2010 the final race was only tentatively scheduled for las vegas if a title sponsor could be found 83 year old track owner bruton smith had been lobbying nascar to hold their season finale at las vegas for years and getting indycar's finale was believed to be a good start five months went by before the track was officially added and finally on february 22nd the schedule was finalized with vegas locked in for october 16. it all culminates sunday october 16th to the bright lights of las vegas the izod indycar series drivers roll the dice at las vegas motor speedway to decide the championship this year one driver will stand apart as the best the fastest most versatile race car driver in the world [Music] when the vegas race was confirmed there was a surprise announcement to go with it because of their diverse schedule of road courses and ovals indycar declared their drivers to be the most well-rounded in the world to prove this they offered a challenge to anyone who could beat them if any driver from another series could enter the las vegas race and win they would earn 5 million dollars this was the largest single race prize ever offered in auto racing drivers interested in the challenge would submit an entry and a panel would be formed to pick five drivers that would run for the money from indycar's point of view the five million dollar challenge was like a ray of sunshine that illuminated the entire season and got the world's attention exactly as it was designed as a year went by some of the best drivers from every part of the world stepped forward and declared they wanted to drive an indy car if only for the challenge talk about vegas and the 5 million challenge i have a lot of people tell me that or ask me is this a gimmick and absolutely not i think this is something that was taken out of the textbook of what indianapolis 500 was always about it was always about bringing the very best to indianapolis and letting them prove who was the best champion for the day that's all we're doing here what we've done is said we know we have the best drivers in the world but if you think you're another great driver one of the best drivers in the world and you want to come compete for five million dollars if you think you can win and be our drivers that day five million dollars that's all we're saying on it and we believe that we can make a big impact with this and uh just off the buzz alone so far and the exposure i think it's been a success and i'm confident it will be a big success on october 16th at first it was thought that the challenge might bring back old indy car drivers who had left the series to run nascar tony stewart juan pablo montoya robbie gordon and sam hornish came to mind but other nascar drivers with open wheel experience such as aj almendinger nelson pk jr and jason lefler declared interest 2007 formula one world champion kimi raikkonen was interested as well but the money also attracted drivers who didn't have such experience rallycross racer and tv host tanner faust tried to find a car for las vegas and uh i'm trying to get into an indy race towards the end of the year we'll see if that happens 2003 world rally car champion petter solberg declared he was interested so did motocross champion james stewart in an interview with sports illustrated randy bernard said he was even contacted by two drag racers about the challenge i think we've had 26 inquiries so far uh some fantastic drivers the sad part is that we can't pick all of them right but i think that you know i think knock on wood um i think we should we should have some spectacular drivers and it should be a showcase of our sport the two dozen drivers who actually contacted indycar were kept secret most only wanted information but as the series headed toward the indy 500 in may a few serious entries did come in joey hand won the 2011 rolex 24 and then the 12 hours of sebring driving for bobby ray hall by may he appeared on the verge of securing a car with the team for vegas scott speed the announcement has come he will join dragon racing for the 500 later this month it will be his first indycar start he will also drive the season finale in vegas where he will be eligible for the five million dollar bonus if he wins you you are likely going to be in a car in vegas as well this has been a little bit vague as to who's going to be eligible for the 5 million a committee will decide that sometime this summer are you set for the five million dollar bonus even though you could have already previously done an indycar race this season uh i think everything is still aligned to to obviously be able to shoot for that um that's anyways the goal and what we're shooting for [Music] amid this season-long backdrop the 100th anniversary of the indy 500 happened to produce one of the most memorable moments in the event's history when the 2011 season began it was without a familiar face in 2005 dan weldon won both the indy 500 and the series championship but after going windless in the last two years he was out of a ride but a lifeline was thrown by an old friend oh no oh dan weldon's stepping in to give you a wet bath here brian herto was teammates with weldon between 2003 and 2006 and recently started a small team of his own in 2010 herta's team miraculously qualified for the indy 500 amidst a confusing series of faster cars withdrawing their times herta called the low budget team two men in a truck racing now back for a second year herta hired weldon to race his car with a competitive team the car they brought to indianapolis was likely the oldest one there built back in 2003 in its first year sam hornish used the chassis to win at kentucky since then it was sold to several other small teams marty roth drove it at indy in 2008. bruno shankara drove it in 2010. sam schmidt motorsports bought the car at the end of 2010 and leased it to herta to run in a partnership at indy the full race hiatus vacation whatever you want to call it was um you know it was it was great i got to spend some time with my family but it was also you know fresh not necessarily frustrating but it's just i think that time really made me realize how much i love to be you know in the indy car and and be part of the indycar series but with uh with brian giving me a great opportunity in the william raskar um you know we've collaborated with sam schmidt's team and um i think we're going to be a force to be reckoned with i was very happy with with how yesterday went and i'm really looking forward to the race you are looking live at the world's most generated racing venue where history has long been made outside row number two he won this race in 2005 ladies and gentlemen dan weldon [Music] jr hildebrand has gotten past scott dixon back yet gives up the lead so j.r hildebrand is the leader with 197 soon to be 198 laps complete high drama here at the indianapolis motor speedway as a rookie is out in front here he goes the final lap across the line j.r hildebrand will see the white flags they are hildebrand with a huge strong offense on their feet fist pump and kept way but he comes out of turn number three here he comes the national guard machine with g r hildebrand down along the white line he is splattering slow and he hits the wall he hits the wall coming out of four will he have enough to cross the yard of bricks who will win who is the winner dan weldon has won the race [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh my goodness how about this brian herta his former teammate dan weldon's former teammate at andretti green racing [Applause] to victory lane we have a two-time winner in indianapolis a great ambassador for this sport a great champion in dan weldon it's so good to represent such a great race and a great series and although i'm part-time it doesn't mean that i just love it a little bit i love everything about it and weldon's stunning win once again made him the face of indycar racing here's two-time indy 500 winner dan weldon dan come on out dan weldon we couldn't be any more proud god bless you now you don't have a job you don't have a gig it was the one race you win it and then so how did how does that work thanks dave i'm sorry but when will you go back to racing full-time now i mean it's nice you come out of retirement once a year to win the indianapolis 500 but when we have a regular series ride well we're working on that with with brian herder and um you know that there has there has been some interest but for me it's important to give rahul a call yeah maybe i should maybe you could hit him up for me yes that's what i do that's always what i'm doing still without a ride however dan spent the summer working for nbc sports and doing development work on the 2012 car i'm sure he'd rather be in the cockpit of a race car but we're honored to have the indy 500 winner with us for both tonight and tomorrow's race dan weldon robin miller and dan weldon they are on the grid doing something they've never done before guys i was actually really hoping that weldon was going to come up and interview me because he's far more interesting than you hey back to dan you look awful serious dude um i am it's my job now you're looking good right no it's not oh you know your job is i think indycar has a lot of momentum right now and i think the 2012 car is going to be incredibly popular let's go to the season finale now the izod indycar series world championship in las vegas now to who might take randy bernard up on the 5 million dollar challenge well he's talked to alex zanardi he's tried to talk to kimi raikkonen a lot of drivers talk to him he's i think dan weldon's in his wheelhouse i think he's thinking about maybe dan weld but not giving him the whole 5 million trying to split it up with charity uh there's people like uh joey saldana the world of outlaws or maybe kevin swindell there's a lot of different people he's been talking about he says he's got one guy already picked but he hadn't told anybody yet by late summer most of the drivers interested in the 5 million dollar challenge had dropped out there were only three realistic contenders left two-time cart champion alex zanardi lost his legs in a crash in september 2001 but two years later he ran full speed laps and proved it was possible to race an indy car with hand controls nascar's casey kane always showed an interest in indycar and this was his chance to finally race one and finally x-game star travis pastrana was set to make his nascar debut in 2011 adding indycar wasn't out of the question either but none of these drivers took the challenge alex only wanted to drive for chip casey kane preferred to drive for roger penske but being that they had such a tight race for the eyes on indycar world championships with the verizon and the target car they felt that it would distract them from going on with this type of challenge and of course uh we understand that 100 percent being we know what the um island car world championships is all about uh the last is travis he had a bad break literally when he broke his ankle and had to decline uh from moving on with with this challenge i think the most important thing is is when you see somebody like a casey kane or or travis personality yeah they're out of their element but casey kane's a big name and that's what randy wanted he wants some people who are going to move the needle and i think that's the most important thing why do it unless you can get some big stars that aren't in their element that have a big fan base it was still worth it though all the free publicity at least las vegas knows now that indycar is coming for a time it seemed like nobody would go for the bonus but to salvage the promotion they built up all year the series turned to their indy 500 winner we wanted to not let our fans down we had a lot of buzz a lot of interest about this 5 million challenge so we felt that we should try to uh go on and uh try a new challenge we wanted to keep it within the sport so the eyes on indycar series and godaddy are very proud to announce that we will give five million dollar challenge to our indy 500 winner dan weldon yeah thank you for the opportunity opportunity but please don't expect any flips like travis does because i'm not into that i'm gonna keep i'm gonna keep it on all four well uh for me i've been just desperate period to get back in a race car since indianapolis and uh you know before i talk about vegas i just want to thank randy for for the opportunity but but also thank randy for what he's done for the indycar series today i think um you know he always talks about moving the needle and you know for people that haven't met randy he can't say a sentence without thinking about moving the needle with the indycar series and i think with the momentum that the indycar series has has gained this year i think he's truly achieved just that and for him vegas would certainly be the icing on the cake i think that it's very important that everyone know team owners drivers sponsors fans why we're doing this i mean when we set out at the beginning this year or last year on our goals for for 2011 one of them was to reach mainstream and fans in other genres of motorsports and that's what this uh was always around was how do we reach those fans and bring them into the izod indycar series and that was the whole reason the five million dollar challenge with with other forms of motorsports was to try to to bring those folks drivers in when that didn't happen we felt that it was too good we received too much good positive momentum to leave it go and we thought that one way we can still do it is with a promotion that reached one of our drivers and how do you be fair to your drivers the best way is go to the guy that received the most press this year at one the indy 500 and give him the opportunity weldon would drive for sam schmidt motorsports in the car that won the poll for that year's 500 with alex tagliani and the 5 million challenge was changed so that weldon would split the prize with a contest winner if he won the money would be paid out in installments over several years let me remind you that beginning tomorrow you can enter for the chance to win the two and a half million dollars through the verizon indycar mobile app you're all clear behind me [Music] mile and a half ovals were a staple of irl racing in the 2000s the competition was close and cars drove flat out drafting for speed weldon was arguably the best driver at this type of track and this type of racing you know i think robin miller talks about my strengths being the one and a half mile oval and the last time i checked vegas was a one and a half mile oval when las vegas was added to the schedule the key word was excitement people constantly promised las vegas would be exciting it was compared to chicago multi-groove track that it photo finishes regularly despite the close racing chicago had a good record of safety with just one multi-car crash in its last five races but the suitability of the las vegas track was something that was questioned in private no one would publicly criticize the track but it was later said that drivers who tested there did not believe it was a track indycar should race at compared to chicago vegas had slightly more banking that was expected to add an extra groove to the track and more speed ryan briscoe declared it would be the second fastest track indycar race staff behind indianapolis he predicted three and four wide racing while intermediate tracks usually had strung out packs of two wide cars indycar had never raced at one with three grooves as a possibility indycar actually embraced this danger and showed flying cars in their advertisements dario franchitti willpower and elio castroneves with 25 of their closest enemies will battle it out at speeds of over 210 miles per hour inches away from catastrophe kids 12 and under free with ga purchase there was a lot riding on the outcome of the las vegas race oval tracks had seen dropping attendance for years at the end of 2010 tracks owned by international speedway corporation a company owned by nascar were dropped from the indycar schedule this included venues like chicagoland homestead kansas and the road course at watkins glen on one hand independently owned road and street courses like barbour and mid-ohio heavily promoted their races and drew big crowds on the other hand randy bernard was vocal in his belief that isc spent less effort to promote the indycar races as opposed to nascar races in 2011 indycar wasn't taking any chances and signed a three-year contract to rent las vegas motor speedway from bruton smith the series did all the promotion themselves and could control everything about it as a thank you to the fans anyone who bought a ticket to an indy car race in 2011 would be given a free ticket for vegas if they so wanted it you know what we want to do is make sure that we're reaching out to our fans each and every way we can and that's why we did if you buy a ticket to any eyes on indycar series race you get a free ticket to the world either any car world championships it's a way that we can create loyalty and give back to our fans it was believed that if vegas was a success it would form a template for more ovals to be self-promoted in 2012 and beyond and the date of october 16th was picked intentionally to maximize tv viewers nascar had only one saturday night race in their playoffs a race in charlotte that was aired on abc the indycar race was scheduled for the next day to avoid conflict even if that meant going up against nfl games if any nascar driver wanted to go for the money they would be able to and the indycar race would be promoted to the tv audience during the nascar race the night before from his time leading professional bull riders randy bernard was very familiar with the las vegas market one that indycar had failed in several times fans didn't show up for a parking lot race in the 1980s irl and champ car races at the las vegas motor speedway failed between 1996 and 2005 and a champ car race on the streets of vegas lasted just one year in 2007. when i took this job it was always in the back of my mind that i wanted to have a race in vegas and the opportunity was to take the world championships just it was it's the place for it i mean one thing that we have to do for our fans is give them great entertainment great competition for great value and there's not a better city in the world that we can do that at than here in las vegas going into the season finale indycar was making and spending a lot of money out of the 121 corporate suites available 117 were sold before the race with each selling between 20 to 35 000 the series was able to make money that way and give away tickets to fans for free indycar bought 600 radio and tv ads promoting the race they badly wanted a huge increase in tv ratings i've made it very clear that i'll be very disappointed i think i even told someone i'd resign if we didn't triple the rating as the race drew closer bernard said he expected up to 70 000 spectators if this was a success by 2013 he envisioned running a street race on friday night around a casino and then hosting the world championships at the oval on sunday it would be a double header in a city that didn't have any professional sports teams at the time but as the event drew closer bernard acknowledged that the success of the race would either make his career or lead to his demise indycar put a limit of 34 entries for the race the field would be indycar's largest since 1997 driven by a number of factors despite the 5 million promotion the race itself didn't pay more money than any other race but the series negotiated free hotel rooms for teams which lowered expenses and the cars were seen as disposable vegas was a long-awaited final race for the dalara ir-03 the irl had used this chassis since 2003. it was one of the last remnants of the divided era for many people it was a very welcome goodbye the chassis was stable and good in close quarters but had a major problem with airborne crashes the car had more weight balance in the rear and a thin nose to reduce drag teams would lower the ride height in the back to get the rear wing out of the air but this stance gave the car an unusual tendency to do a backflip if it made contact with something in front throughout the 1990s and early 2000s cart would race at speeds nearing 250 miles per hour without a thought of a car flying into a catch fence but this was entirely an irl problem the first such crash happened only months into the car's time in the series testing at indy in april 2003 mario andretti hit a piece of debris and flipped wildly through the air later in 2003 dan weldon himself had a car float into the air in a crash so did kenny bracket texas then tony rena was killed in a similar crash in indianapolis between 2003 and 2011 nearly a dozen cars flipped in aerodynamic related accidents the new car for 2012 had more weight towards the front and included guards to protect the rear wheels and eliminate a potential launching ramp for airborne crashes and the same with this device behind the wheel that's built in such a way that the the nose hits it at a certain height and stops uh stops the wheel wheel kind of like mike conway's accident indy last year helps to to avoid those sorts of incidents you don't want the wheels climbing up over each other because that's when unpleasant things happen exactly and i don't want any part of that and as it turned out las vegas would also be the last race for the series biggest star we need to talk about danica today in phoenix arizona she made it official she is coming to nascar i am excited to finally announce we're excited to finally announce that godaddy will be taking me full time into nascar next year after finishing fourth in march's nascar nationwide series race at las vegas the indycar season finale gave danica patrick a chance to end her career with another win and give the series a chance to say goodbye be there for danica patrick's last indycar race sunday october 16th danica challenges the bravest drivers in the world at the las vegas motor speedway on top of all of this anticipation for vegas was ramped up with a great fight for the championship the 2011 season came down to a tight battle between will power and dario franchitti for the title power was chasing his first championship while franchitti was in pursuit of his third straight power entered the october 2nd race at kentucky with an 11 point lead but lost his advantage after a pit road crash led to a 19th place finish franchitti lost the race by a nose to ed carpenter who took his first win that swung the points lead to frank keating who entered las vegas with an 18 point advantage after a year of build up it was finally time to go to las vegas [Music] the vegas weekend began on wednesday indycar unveiled a historical new championship trophy the aster cup was first given to drivers in 1915 and now it was revived for current champions we unveiled a new trophy which was unveiled on that on that table just there unfortunately we had to separate will and dario so we took the trophy away just to keep everybody calm yeah i think that's pretty cool it's a very old trophy a lot of history there all those names from cart indycar champ car irl are all on there all the champions so it would be unbelievable to have my name on there sometime in addition the winning fan for the 5 million challenge was picked we announced the winner of the five million dollar godaddy uh indycar verizon challenge um anne bobenko she's a very excitable character a lovely lady from new jersey so i've got to make sure i do very well she did tell me that she was going to put me in a headlock prior to the race just as a warning to let me know what will happen if i don't deliver post race i think randy's done a really good job promoting this race i think there's plenty for fans to do and there's definitely going to be a fierce race for fans to watch and yeah we've got plenty going on behind the scenes in the city so that's uh that's cool you know one thing i wanted to do is really help make sure we own the city when we come here there's i think 46 major events in this town this week and uh you know our team that's a credit to the indycar management las vegas visitor convention authority mgm grand resorts and las vegas motor speedway have all been great partners you know it's great to be part of this particular race i think everybody should be proud of the job that randy bernard and everybody at the indycar series has done and to our partners and to honda for uh you know being a title sponsor of this race make sure you watch it if you're not there and if you're thinking about going go because it's going to be the weekend of your life [Music] began on thursday the 34 car field was ironically split into two groups because of the field size graham ray hall spun exiting the pits and didn't hit anything danica patrick was fastest i tell you what i'd just like to finish this right and i'd like to finish it off on a good note and nothing would sort of uh let me turn the page to the next chapter better than winning here off track there was good news regarding dan weldon it was reported that he had reached a deal to rejoin michael andretti's team and replaced danica patrick in 2012. also michael shank announced he would form an indycar team plans that were ultimately delayed until 2017. after practice all cars were brought to the las vegas strip uh tonight what you're gonna see is for the first time in history where the the strip has been shut down at eight o'clock so we're really looking forward to it thousands of people out here so it's gonna be a lot of fun everything from tonight with loopy fiasco at our kickoff party to good charlotte playing and most lonely boys on sunday so we have celebrity blackjack tournaments with just tons of celebrities coming michael irving's gonna fly over marshall fall tons of nba players it's it's what we want to do is make sure that we've taken care of our fans with one of the best events you can and i sure hope so [Applause] it's such a cool experience coming down here you see all the lights and everything and it's uh you know to to know exactly what you just said that this hasn't happened before and you know it's really special and actually i think it's great for the sport because to see the amount of people lining the streets i guarantee all these people didn't come you know to see the indycar race but now they're exposed to it and and that's what matters and i think you know it's a really cool opportunity and i hope we can do it again now what do you think about the uh about las vegas and this this final event the first of its kind pretty exciting to participate in yeah very much i mean it's probably the perfect city and ending the season because just all the parties and all the excitement the energy is here too power graham ray hall and marco andretti now we're getting a little racy here wow so they go three wide through four and that was marco andretti on the high side paul tracy in the middle townsend bell was low and townsend bell on the low side well we just watched uh james hinchcliffe do something that i'm fairly certain brian barnhart didn't want to see him do and kevin that is run the 0-6 sprott ink car all the way below the white line couple of close calls here to start finishing guys but keep them smooth everybody that has cars is here running them and it has led to an entry list of 34 cars which is the largest entry list outside of indianapolis 500 we've ever had it's stressful you feel a sense of responsibility for every one of them that are out there and it doesn't matter if there's 26 of them one weekend and the 34 that we have here you develop relationships with the guys friday's practice saw the first crash of the weekend the suspension failure caused james jakes to hit the turn two wall but that is james jakes that's a big fire that really is and he is already halfway out of the car the car has come apart as it made very hard contact the good news is james jakes is out of the car and he looks to be okay we'll have to wait for a report to make sure that he didn't suffer any type of uh minor burns or anything but certainly a scary moment for james jakes he had just done a lap kevin at 219.082 [Music] at three o'clock qualifying began tony kanaan won the poll with a speed of 222 miles per hour since 2004 indycar had raced on mile and a half ovals 46 times and this was the fastest pull speed of them all at the other end of the field dan weldon was very unhappy with his car you know for us we we don't understand why we're so far off the pace yeah um you know quite quite frankly at the pace that we're out we won't keep up in the draft even so there's something we're missing i mean the team are working hard at it but you seem almost baffled right now yeah i mean it's a car that was on pole at the indianapolis 500 and was on pole at texas so it's not that but it just gets frustrating you know you have such a good indianapolis 500 and you come back to try and do well at two races and you know these are these are my kind of tracks and you know no disrespect to some of the people out there that they're driving around the outside of me and pulling away it's it's not good right now you said yesterday that um you can only do so much because you can't trim the car out the championship contenders of will power and dario franchitti qualified a disappointing 17th and 18th with a mid-pack car power made no secret the drivers had little impact on speed it's it's just i think this racing honestly is over racing when you just flat out 100 which would probably be the whole race it's just kind of ridiculous that you know if you get a gust of wind on your qualifying lap you might have to be on pole i mean he's coming down for that but this track for qualifying as an engine ghana you know that's what it is it's 100 engines and then drag that drag so yeah entering the weekend major concerns grew among drivers over the style of racing expected this was going to be nothing like any mile and a half track indycar had raced at media members predicted a pack race like nascar on super speedways drivers knew they were entering a bad situation unlike other mile and a half ovals vegas had a lot of grip and every groove was usable yeah it's a lot smoother than kentucky slightly more open too which means i think we're gonna see more pack racing more cars two and three wider on the track so yeah this is going to be one the fans will love and the drivers will be thankful when it's over i mean i think eventually it's going to end up three wide um it's obviously going to be very deep in the field as well and i don't think you see the string out much at all kentucky was actually a grip limited track so you weren't just running completely trimmed out um and you know it was bumpy and it was actually a little harder so you could make a difference on setup i think the thing is that the track grip is just so much higher because you can see that you know guys will run way up on the high line and there's dust flying everywhere but the car's not moving you know i mean there's grip so uh i think that's why you can see three wide racing times you know 10 rows deep i really do think it's going to be it's going to be an insane race in terms of just practice it looked like cars were going 3y and would you expect to see the same thing in the race no i expect 4y i i'm not joking i think there's going to be a lot of four wide action uh i think what regularly in other ovals is two white heat is going to be three and when it's gonna get exciting it's gonna be four and it's not just gonna be one row like that there's gonna be many many rows two three white so i expect it to be really hairy and dangerous and way exciting for the for the fans at home watching on tv and the ones here i'm sure it's going to give you a lot of you know good material for you guys to write about uh and hopefully everybody will be safe at the end and have a clean safe race [Music] saturday was a day off for indycar teams while the series looked a year into the future and towards the 2012 season finale two brand new cars with chevy and honda engines were driven by ryan hunter ray and charlie kimball it's it's safer for sure you can tell that right away it's more comfortable we'll get up to speed and the car is going to be rock solid i think it'll be pretty impressive speed wise too [Music] later in the day the nascar truck series raced at vegas that night's cup race at charlotte featured heavy promotion for the indycar world championships tomorrow open wheel racing crown's a champion in las vegas dariel frankie is on top heading towards his third consecutive title but will power's 18 points away from playing spoiler and danica says farewell to the sport that made her a superstar the izod indycar series world championship in las vegas tomorrow at 3 eastern on abc presented by sunoco big day tomorrow for the ice on indycar world series the world championship season finale race championship will be decided between dario franchitti and will power that's abc 3 eastern time presented by sunoco jimmy johnson sideways [Music] the wisconsin driver matt kenseth scores a win at charlotte a huge momentum builder in his championship it's matt kenton taking race five in the chase race morning arrived for the most anticipated and most feared race in a long time the cars were faster than ever the track was the widest on the schedule and the most cars were on the track in decades as the race was set to begin the crowd was much smaller than estimated roughly 20 000 people filled the stands rising out of the desert north of las vegas is las vegas motor speedway and the skies are a clear blue over the speedway but for dario franchitti and will power a storm cloud is brewing and for one of these two title contenders lightning is about to strike let's let's uh there's a lot of history and tradition to win the indianapolis 500 this is this is slightly different it's a unique opportunity that randy bernard the indycar series godaddy and verizon have given me and um you know we've had a tough weekend so far but you know i think the bowers and wilkins at magnolia william rask cub curb and big machine records car will uh you know definitely come to the front we've uh like i say they've worked tirelessly yesterday to uh literally change everything so so there's not the problem of having slow car syndrome and you know i've been excited but by this event just with the build up but i can't wait for the race in answer to your question i think there's pressure all the time especially when you want to win as bad as i do skateboarding legend tony hawk to give the command drivers start your engines [Applause] this is going to be pack racing at 220 plus miles an hour well i think you're gonna see three by three i told our guys we don't need to hang out up in the upper lane until the last 50 laps and a very racy track you heard roger say three by three we expect three wide maybe four wide some of the drivers tell me and patience boy you better have 34 cars here pick and choose because it's going to have to get to the end if you have a shot at winning this thing this is going to be a spectacle this is a great way to go out for the indycar series in 2011 we know we've got the new cars and multiple engine manufacturers coming for 2012. so uh we're excited and grateful to honda for sponsoring uh this particular race good luck today dan [Music] let's get underway tony kanaan looks like he's going to see the green flag and he's got a nice jump over the telemundo carvorial serbia behind him cars will go three wide and carpenter on the inside mark james as carpenter will grab third off of turn number two this is one of those places where you have to make sure your spotter and you are working in total tandem tony kanaan's looking really strong look right in the middle of that screen there's the number 10 of dario franchitti as uh he is continuing to sort of be in the middle of things you can see we'll keep updating you as the points as they run there's the 12. dario's just getting ahead of willpower now on board with briscoe the 98 of alex tagliani on the high side [Music] slowing down nobody touched it good day it looked like they did 28 machine of ryan hunter ray got bumped by a car at the exit of the back straightaway to set up a turn number three a piece of debris flew off of that car mike somehow everybody was able to gather it back in guys too early to be three wide let's get them down at least to two don't get stuck in the middle 27. there is will that's that look who's passing the 77 of dan weldon points as they run right now frankie's favorite looking for dan weldon started 34th in this field he has moved up 10 spots you're on board with him and one thing he was worried about going into this race was all that dirty air created by 34 cars out to kumasato trying to get very racist tycoon goes to the inside we've got two cars that touch the car has gotten sideways no that's eight four five cars maybe six seven eight cars involved as repeated contacts on the outside of turn number two [Music] there's one upside down dave this is what we feared here as cars with 34 cars racing it better than 212 miles an hour mark the big one in turn number two okay guys we're gonna go red on this we're gonna go around next time [Music] the accident investigation showed weldon was going 224 miles per hour on the front stretch reduced his speed to 165 by the time he made contact with the cars in front weldon's car went airborne and tumbled toward the catch fence it flipped in just the right manner which allowed his helmet to make contact with a post supporting the catch fence very bad i just pray to god that nobody's that nobody's hurt like it's the heaviest thing i've seen in indycar racing for forever control dave do we have a rundown on any codes besides zero one part 77 code zero five r seventy seven code05 that dan weldon is who right now obviously everyone is thinking about and obviously right now all thoughts are right there there is pippa mann as they are trying to get her out of her car and then you see the 77 of dan weldon's car what is left of it the medevac helicopter has uh just taken off from the infield care center and all of our hopes will uh will fly with uh with that helicopter and dan weldon as he makes his way to a las vega las vegas area hospital you know within five laps people were starting to do crazy stuff um and that early in the race i really wanted i don't want no part of it full stop but i wanted no part of it there um you know i love hard racing um but that to me is not really what it's about you know we said before we even i said before we tested here i haven't driven a the stock car here this is not a suitable track and we've seen it today it's just there's no you can't get away from anybody there's no way to differentiate yourself either a car or driver you're just stuck there and people get frustrated and go four wide and you saw what happened one small mistake from somebody and there's a massive thing so we knew coming into this race racing at speed to 225 miles an hour that this would be this would be a tough one to get it done without a big wreck it only takes one small mistake to create a very big problem like we see here i really hope dan weldon's okay i haven't heard anything other than he was airlifted but we all love doing what we're doing we're very uh very lucky to do what we do um and sometimes you know these tracks and and having 34 cars out there you're looking at a bad combination anyway but you know if the guys just took care of each other a little more you know we wouldn't be having these incidences but uh i mean when you put guys out there that that are competitors you know you can tell them don't pass lay back it just doesn't happen you know and you know so you gotta you can't put the responsibility all on them yeah they they need to take yourself a little bit but still if you're gonna put them in a situation like this you know it's uh there's gonna be you know carnage like this i think it's very important that when you put these drivers in this position to be racing you always contemplate what the possible consequences are you cannot put all the responsibility on the drivers because somebody got sideways somebody was high somebody was low that's irrelevant when you put them in a in an arena like that and you tell them go race and there's going to be a winner at the end of the day and they can make or break somebody's career it is that decision is already made months and months beforehand with how many cars you're going to allow on the track what the configurations of the car going to be those are things that are done before you get to the racetrack so i think it's very wrong and i'm sure this will not happen today to lay the blame on a specific driver that did a thing something that was wrong it's a question of how did we get here at three o'clock randy bernard took to the podium andy carr is very sad to announce that dan weldon has passed away from unsurvivable injury our our thoughts and prayers are with his family today indycar its drivers and team owners has decided to end the race in honor of dan weldon the drivers have decided to do a five-lap salute in his honor it will take place in approximately 10 minutes thank you for several years [Music] the race got a 1.6 tv rating and averaged 2.5 million viewers outside of the indy 500 it was the most watched race for the series in many years in the 10 years that followed no other indy indycar race was watched by that many people desperate for viewers indycar got them in the worst way possible [Music] within a week graham ray hall organized a charity auction that raised over six hundred thousand dollars for weldon's family the new chassis for 2012 was renamed the dw12 in honor of dan [Applause] having built the event to be a multi-year finale indycar's future was shattered at any level however the death of champion driver dan weldon is just sad and before it's over it may have ramifications for an entire sport and the inevitable question out of this is going to be is the kind of racing we saw today too dangerous and if so what's to be done about it way too dangerous i've been writing stories since the the late 90s that this kind of insanity this wide open mile and a half pack racing when you're on top of each other and you're and these cars are so stuck and they're going 220 miles an hour and you can't get out of the throttle because somebody's gonna run over the top of you it is not racing it's like a big game of chicken and adrian fernandez is here this weekend and he was smart enough to quit 2004 because he said that ain't racing i'm not getting involved in anymore he was in the ira a couple years he said he never seen the drivers as anxious as in nervous as they were before the start of this race and he said i'm not talking about one or two he says i'm talking about every guy i talked to so is there a fix that enables indy cars to continue to race on those kinds of tracks because the way i do the math if you take away those kinds of tracks oval racing as we know at indycar oval racing as we know it becomes a one race deal it's the indy 500 and that's it if you're going to stay on these mile and a half bowls built for nascar you got you got one option you go back to the hanford device like they used to have in cart in the late 90s and it made the cars pass each other it allowed cars to slingshot each other and pass you didn't run next to each other in a big pack guys were passing each other there's 165 passes that michigan wants so they've shown you can run at michigan and fontana and big tracks like this and put on a show and still make it relatively safe but if you can't do that and you can't i was talking to steve horne tonight he goes this is a fixable problem but it has to be fixed immediately you can't race next year it had and you can't do this again until the problem is fixed either you fix the problem or you quit running in places like this and you become a road course street core circuit highlighted by the indy 500 indycar is very sad to announce that dan weldon has passed away almost immediately after this announcement the finger pointing started aimed mostly at bernard he doesn't know anything about the cars people who work with bernard even back in his days at the professional bull riders will tell you he is one of the most genuine and caring in the business always putting the safety of his athletes first but now people outside the sport were criticizing bernard for the decision to race on the oval in las vegas accusing him of putting entertainment before safety randy bernard was criticized in a new york times article saying the promotion was reckless drivers such as dario franchitti and graham ray hall however quickly came to bernard's defense saying that the real problem was quote everyone drove like idiots at vegas almost all drivers and owners were vocal that he shouldn't be blamed for the wreck that he was still valued as ceo at one point he says the drivers actually wanted to restart the race everyone looking to him for the final signal after seeing the emotions in that room i felt it wasn't in our best interest to restart the race and out of respect to dan i just didn't i made the decision to stop the race you know in talking to randy about this experience you can see why the drivers why the owners why so many in indycar admire him you know the strength of his leadership is really the strength of his character and his integrity it's going to be interesting to see where he takes the sport from here that support for randy bernard quickly disappeared in 2012. the new car had several problems the biggest was that it cost more than expected bernard negotiated a deal for continental to replace firestone as tire provider firestone never had tire failures and the potential switch made team owners very nervous he scheduled to race in china but when it was canceled two months before it was supposed to be held indycar didn't get a cent to the promised 8 million dollars and the tv ratings also fell by june bernard publicly acknowledged that team owners were secretly plotting to get him fired amid great tension indycar returned to a mile and a half oval at texas the following june the drivers relieved to find that the new car made handling more difficult which eliminated flat out racing and allowed cars to separate on october 28th the board of directors voted to remove randy bernard well apparently somebody knew is going to be running indycar the ceo randy bernard out of there robin miller tells us what happened it's the most heinous way to treat someone i've ever seen in just the most low class amateur moves drag is all it's been going on all summer all these rumors and in windows guys dropping hands out blah blah blah guy worked his butt off and you know you treat a guy like this that's had good success in other things and is pretty well respected by a lot of big people in this country and i just it gives all it gives indycar racing such a bad bad taste and bad reputation it just makes them look so amateurish roger penske called bernard's firing a big disappointment and the board of directors continued to show poor judgment for the second straight year indycar entered the off-season in turmoil indycar never returned to las vegas despite bruton smith's demand that the series honored their contract just over a year after the las vegas finale indycar was paying to rent a track that they didn't race at and paying the salary of a ceo that they had fired the las vegas nightmare continues to live in the minds of indycar fans and competitors for some it's too painful to even think about memories were invoked to california in 2015 when new arrow kits allowed close racing once [Music] more wow you know it's really disappointing because we sat down after las vegas with indycar and we all sat there and discussed the fact that uh we could never have a race like we had there in terms of the pack racing that goes on or used to go on an indy car and while we're here doing it today i have no idea what are we doing what are we doing i mean you know we went in there and told them we'll be pack racing and that was a vegas situation right there and i'm just so happy that no one was really hurt that's crazy racing it's crazy crazy crazy we just don't need another incident like we had in vegas and and running like this it'll happen it's just a matter of time in a lot of ways indycar is different than it was ten years ago with las vegas perhaps no greater than the race cars themselves an arrow screen has been added to protect drivers since weldon's only injury was a head injury from the fence impact he likely would have walked away had an arrow screen been on his car the dw12 chassis carries weldon's legacy as the safest car indy car has ever raced a bit of light from one of the sport's darkest moments to be honest why drivers don't like talking about the danger of their sport is it tempts fate do i believe that it'll ever happen to me no could it happen to me absolutely but at the end of the day you know your time's up your time's up [Music] [Music] you

Channel: nascarman History

Views: 282,194

Keywords: indycar, motorsports, documentary, indy 500, dan wheldon, auto racing, las vegas, crash, flip, fire, nascar, formula one

Id: wsgl-o7gHsM

Length: 64min 1sec (3841 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 16 2021