Dan Wheldon (2005, 2011)

Image courtesy of Getty Images

Seven months ago today, the world lost a great racer, a great father, and a great man in Dan Wheldon. After his tragic passing at Las Vegas in the IndyCar World Championship, we stepped back and reflected on the great life of Dan Wheldon, talking about his accomplishments and what he meant to the racing community.

However, we only touched upon his greatest success on his best track. We didn't talk about the six times he started on the front two rows at Indy. We brushed over his six finishes in the top four in nine career Indy 500 starts. We only mentioned his two times winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The truth is, Dan Wheldon might be the best to race at Indianapolis in the 21st Century.


Let's start with Wheldon's rookie campaign in 2003, where he qualified his Andretti Green entry in the middle of the second row. He ran a solid race, running with the front pack for most of the day. On lap 186, after a restart, Wheldon battled hard to keep Sam Hornish, Jr., behind him. Going into turn three, though, Wheldon's car wiggles and he hits the outside wall hard. His day ends on his head, as his machine flips after hitting the wall and comes to a stop upside-down. (Again, like I said seven months ago, I love the safety crew in the IndyCar Series, as they had Wheldon's car right-side-up again within 30 seconds of him hitting the wall. I remember thinking as Wheldon climbed out of the car that he had a great rookie campaign and that he would surely return to the Speedway with a vengeance. I said he would undoubtedly win at Indy some day.

2004 was not his year, though he started second and finished third in a rain-soaked race day that had tornadoes touching down six miles away from the Speedway. He led 26 of the 180 laps run that day.

Dan Wheldon (middle) had some fun with Danica's teammates
Buddy Rice (left) and Vitor Meira (right) with the
beginningof "Danica Mania" after the 2005 Indy 500.
Image courtesyof USA Today.

In 2005, Wheldon did win the Indy 500 like I had predicted. He became one of the most forgotten 500 winners in history, though. That was the year of Danica Patrick coming into the IndyCar Series.  Dan and Danica battled back and forth over the last thirty laps, but Dan's car was just a little bit better and had just a little more fuel in it. His win was the first Indy 500 victory for his owner Michael Andretti, who could never win one as a driver. Wheldon would go on to win the IndyCar Series that year, the year in which everybody "forgot" who won the biggest race of the year. In fact, many times later in the year he was seen wearing a shirt that said "Actually won the Indy 500" to poke fun at the attention Danica was getting for NOT winning.

Wheldon moved to Target Chip Ganassi Racing after his 2005 Indy 500 and IndyCar Series Championship. He qualified 3rd, 6th, and 2nd in his three years in the Target #10 car. Wheldon dominated the 2006 race, leading 148 laps, but strategy down the stretch didn't quite go his way. He finished 4th. In 2007, Wheldon and Marco Andretti got tangled late in the race as rain was approaching and every position on every lap mattered. It was Wheldon's only DNF at Indy besides his rookie campaign. Then, in '08, Wheldon led 30 laps but it was his teammate who stole the show. Scott Dixon in the #9 Ganassi car won from the pole, leading 115 laps. Wheldon and Dixon had exchanged the lead back and forth early in the race, but handling problems pushed Wheldon back to a 12th place finish.

Wheldon lost his seat with Ganassi to Dario Franchitti after the 2008 season, and he joined up with the team that gave him his first shot: Panther Racing. In the 2009 and 2010 Indy 500, Wheldon qualified 18th (outside of row 6). In both years, he finished 2nd (including finishing behind Franchitti in 2010). He never led a lap in either race, but was in contention both years. He was consistently about eight car-lengths behind Helio Castroneves for the last 15 laps in 2009, but could not reel him in before the end of the race. In 2010, Wheldon saved fuel early in the last stint and was able to chase down the leader, Franchitti, in the closing laps. Franchitti was running laps under 200 mph (the average racing lap speed was close to 220 mph) to save fuel, and Wheldon had closed the gap to less than three seconds as the white flag flew. Many believe Wheldon would have caught Franchitti as the Scot would not make it on fuel while maintaining a good enough race speed. However, a crash behind them in turn 3 kept the world from seeing if that was true or not.

Panther decided to go away from Wheldon in 2011 in favor of a new face, rookie J.R. Hildebrand, fresh from the Indy Lights Series. This left Wheldon without a ride for the season. He joined forces with a former teammate, now team owner Bryan Herta, in a dual effort with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, to field an entry for the Indianapolis 500.  No Indy 500 race had been won by a team other than Ganassi, Penske, or Andretti since 2004 when Buddy Rice won for Rahal Letterman Racing. No IndyCar Series race had been won by somebody other than the big three teams in nearly four years. Yet Wheldon and Herta did the impossible.

On the final lap, Wheldon found himself in a familiar situation: second place, a few seconds behind the leader: rookie JR Hildebrand of...Panther Racing. Although this time, the crash wouldn't happen BEHIND Wheldon.  Coming around turn four, Hildebrand has to go high around a car out of fuel, and he gets out of the groove and hits the wall. In the chaos that followed, hardly anybody realized that Wheldon had passed the crippled Hildebrand car on the front stretch before crossing the start/finish line. It was a beautiful moment for Wheldon and his former teammate, and was easy to see and hear during his victory lap.

Wheldon became the first Indy 500 winner to lead only one lap. It was certainly the most important lap, however. He joins '06 winner Sam Hornish, Jr., as the only drivers to make the winning pass on the last lap (in fact, both on the front straight heading toward the start/finish line). His 2nd victory at Indianapolis almost guaranteed his reappearance in future years to a big name team (in fact, he was to replace Danica Patrick on Andretti Autosport for the 2012 season).

Sadly, Wheldon never got that chance. IndyCar fans never got the chance to see Wheldon race again at Indy. He lost his life doing what he loved - racing his heart out. He died from injuries sustained in the Las Vegas race last year, seven months ago today.

Nine career starts, six top 4 finishes, two times kissing the bricks. Undoubtedly one of (if not the) best to race at Indy in the new millennium. How many could he have won? I wish we were able to answer that question. I wish we didn't have to ask that question.