Sam Schmidt: I still don’t think to this day it was a bad idea to bring Randy in and try and differentiate yourself and create a show and an atmosphere. I don’t think anybody can put it on him because he doesn’t have knowledge of the engineering side, the aero side of things, and all that kind of stuff. You’ve got to rely on others to stand up and say we shouldn’t have raced there. But for the promotional side, I was as much a part of it as anybody. But I don’t blame Randy for any of it. 

Townsend Bell, No. 22 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Honda: You know what, when I think back to that day, I don’t have any anger. I wasn’t mad at anybody or anything. I was devastated and disturbed. But I wasn’t mad. And not in the moment or that evening or in the subsequent years, would I blame anybody or anything.

IndyCar’s relationship with risk tolerance is a really critical component to the entertainment and historical success of the sport. We’d be lying to all of our collective selves if we thought any different. And I think the folks that were upset about the circumstances of that event that that accident, that tragedy, had probably more to do with the risk versus reward profile as opposed to just the risk.  

What’s the difference in trying to go big and win that race in Vegas versus going big to set a new track record and Indy for the last 80 or 90 years? The risk of setting a track record at Indianapolis was considered much more valiant. But is it really? Is it a more tolerable pursuit at Indy than winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a pack race? Who’s to say that one is less pure or less noble than the other? They’re both incredibly risky. And they both have produced fatalities through the years, whether that’s in the race or qualifying.  

I think what was different about Vegas is just by nature of the pack races that defined the era, it probably should have probably happened many, many times before. And when the merger happened, I think a lot of us thought, ‘OK, finally, the Civil War is over. And we’ll go back to racing Indy cars and pushing the limits, in a more sensible format.’  

We’ll go back to the road and street racing, which we did, and we’ll go back to ovals that are, you know, a little more testing of the driver, as opposed to the pure kind of gladiator courage test in Vegas. And I think that’s what was upsetting for some people. It felt like that Vegas tragedy with Dan was like all those years of some crazy IRL racing, white-knuckle, flat-out races.  

I mean, if you were anywhere near the industry, you watched those pack races and thought they would all end in catastrophe, as they did many times, but there just hadn’t been that fatality. It felt like we dodged a lot of bullets. And then Vegas came on the schedule, there’s a big spectacular promotion, and then it bit us. But like I said, I wasn’t angry at anybody. I knew exactly what I was signing up for.  

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED IN 10 YEARS?

Dario Franchitti: I think the first thing is we made the car safer, the Dallara DW12, named after Dan, of course. Unfortunately, it showed up one race too late. You know, that’s nobody’s fault. The way the cockpit was laid out in the DW12 was so much safer.  

The fact that we don’t do that dreadful pack racing anymore. That’s probably the biggest thing we learned. And then, more recently, the introduction of the aeroscreen. To me, that is the biggest development of all over the 10-year period. If you go back 20 years, you’d probably say the SAFER barrier and the HANS device. Since we lost Dan, I think the aeroscreen has been a game changer. 

Graham Rahal: A lot of the advancements in technology and safety we can thank Dan for, in a very sad way. It’s sad that it often takes a terrible event for us to see change. In Dan’s case, and then also obviously Justin Wilson, they’ve led us to where we are today with a much safer car.  

Another thing we need to continue to learn from is what a great soul and human Dan was, the cheery nature, and the loving and caring nature that he carried himself with. I do think about that often. I do think that a lot of people could learn from his spirit and the way that he carried himself. Both with fans, but also with each other.  

Sam Schmidt: We can talk all day about the improvements in the car’s safety, by we certainly haven’t made any progress in the redesign of the catch fences. We continue to go to some places where poles are on the outside of the fence as opposed to the inside. There’s been nothing really to come down for improvements from a track design standpoint. I try to find a silver lining in everything but can’t point to a silver lining here.  

Townsend Bell: I think we have a much lower appetite for risk, as an industry. And that’s been a huge change. Our sport was built on the shoulders of men and women taking oversized risks for 90 years. But definitely Dan’s crash was a turning point in adjusting the industry’s risk tolerance profile.