FAST FORWARD 

If the same scenario for pack racing presented itself today, would it be handled differently by the teams and drivers? We have achieved our first consensus.

Graham Rahal: I really don’t. That was the right downforce, the right tire grip, the right track grip, you had ability to run three- or four-wide sometimes, and we don’t go to any places that do that anymore. If we went back to Vegas, it wouldn’t be that way because the tires aren’t as good and the cars are totally different aerodynamically today than what we had.  

A lot of people look down on Vegas. I actually had somebody say to me the other day, ‘I can’t believe you guys ever raced in Vegas.’ Unfortunately, that’s not actually true. I think if you went back to Vegas tomorrow, the race that you would have would be way, way different than the race that you had on that given day. That was the ultimate scenario of pack racing. Today’s cars, even if you went back tomorrow, you would never be the same as back then, truthfully. 

But I do think that if it got to that point, yes, you better believe you’re going to hear from me, from Will Power, from all these guys that were there that are so strongly against it. I’ve got a family; I’ve got a baby girl and a wife and things that I’ve got to take care of. I’ve got a great responsibility to them to try to come home in one piece and be healthy. That weighs heavy on your mind.  

That time in Las Vegas, I was 22 years old, man; it’s 10 years ago. I had nothing to go home to. I could be an idiot, and I could go out and be crazy and be fast and not worry about my wife, not worry about my baby girl. Your mind changes, even for a guy like myself. 

Sam Schmidt: You would hope that the powers that be would come to the realization that you can talk as much as you want, but once the helmet goes on, they tend to throw caution to the wind. Hopefully that goes into the thought process for any potential new events.  

Townsend Bell: Vegas had nothing to do with humanity and everything to do with entertainment. I don’t imagine we’d be in that situation again. Certainly not. Not with the players at the helm today. I just don’t think that we would ever be in that kind of environment. 

Drivers (from left to right) Mike Conway, Sebastien Bourdais, the late Justin Wilson, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Ryan Briscoe, Max Papis, Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe with the the Dan Wheldon Memorial Trophy in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. Image courtesy of Marshall Pruett

EPILOGUE 

IndyCar was scheduled to return and race in Las Vegas in 2012, but those plans were cancelled in the wake of Wheldon’s death. Neither drivers, nor their teams owners, have expressed a desire for its inclusion on future IndyCar calendars.

Susie Wheldon would press on, concentrate her energies on raising their sons Sebastian and Oliver who, while in their pre-teens, were recently signed to junior development contracts by their father’s 2005 IndyCar championship- and Indy 500-winning team, Andretti Autosport.

Rahal, barely out of his teens, would assemble a charity auction that generated more than $600,000 for the Wheldons. The V8 Supercars series, missing Wheldon who was scheduled to take part in the Gold Coast 600, created a trophy bearing his name for the top international driver at the event.

Hunter-Reay created a tribute helmet to Honor Wheldon and auctioned it off with the proceeds going to charity. A street has been named after Wheldon, a book was published by some of his best friends, and dozens of other gestures, big and small, continue to be made with Wheldon as the central inspiration.

All manner of little details would emerge, like Bernard leaving IndyCar aside and spending hours with Susie and the Wheldon family in their private suite on the night of the crash. The CEO of the MGM refused to accept payment for the cancelled banquet, willfully losing hundreds of thousands of dollars with the decision. The No. 77 chassis, once the series was finished with its investigation, was destroyed and sent to a land fill at the request of the team.

Ten years on, IndyCar is under different ownership, new leaders are in place, and of the 34 who competed in the IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 12 suited up for one or more NTT IndyCar Series races in 2021.

We’ve moved on since the day we lost “Danny Boy,” but not so much that we’ve forgotten what took place. And on their current path, a gift awaits us in the near future.

Sam Schmidt: We’ve got a picture of Dan with his Indy 500 ring right above my fireplace. Somebody asked me, “Do you still have Dan in your memories?” I see his smiling face above the fireplace every day.  

It’s really good that Susie is still involved. Not sure if she really wanted the boys to do what they’re doing, but the fact that they’re racing karts and racing well is good. We haven’t seen the last of the Wheldons at the track.