Dan Wheldon crash BREAK DOWN

I watched this video dozens of times trying to figure out what in the world was going on and then I found out many others were doing the same. So I took it upon myself to figure it out and make a video breaking it down for you. Sorry about the poor quality - I just don't have the equipment to do it right. Here is the official running order at the time of the wreck:

1. Tony Kanaan 82
2. Ed Carpenter 67
3. Ryan Briscoe 6
4. Marco Andretti 26
5. Oriol Servia 2
6. Alex Tagliani 98
7. Graham Rahal 38
8. Ryan Hunter-Reay 28
9. James Hinchcliffe 06
10. Helio Castroneves 3
11. JR Hildebrand 4*
12. Wade Cunningham 17*
13. Takuma Sato 5
14. Townsend Bell 22*
15. Jay Howard 15*
16. Danica Patrick 7
17. Thomas Scheckter 57*
18. Scott Dixon 9
19. Vitor Meira 14*
20. Dario Franchitti 10
21. Charlie Kimball 83*
22. Paul Tracy 8*
23. EJ Viso 59*
24. Dan Wheldon 77*
25. Alex Lloyd 19*
26. Pippa Mann 30
27. Will Power 12*
28. Mike Conway 27
29. Sebastian Saaverda 34
30. Buddy Rice 44*
31. Simona de Silvestro 78
32. James Jakes 18**
33. Anna Beatrice 24
34. Davey Hamilton 11***

*- Were directly involved in the crash
**- Could not complete lap 12 even though he didn't wreck
***- Not sure what happened to Davey Hamilton but he was listed immediately behind James Jakes in the running order AFTER the wreck. Either that was a mistake or he went into the pits early behind Jakes.

EDIT 1- It has come to my attention that I made a small mistake in my breakdown video: The onboard footage of Will Power proves that Will ran into Alex Lloyd, not Buddy Rice, so it was Buddy Rice that launched off of the back of Paul Tracy. Other than that it all seems correct.

EDIT 2- It was just pointed out to me by DanicaFans that the car that launched over Paul Tracy was actually Pippa Mann which now seems kind of obvious when you look at 1:45 of the original video which shows the white number 30 car running directly in front of Power and clips Lloyd on her way to her crash. Thanks DanicaFans for clearing that up.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Dan
• weldon
• Crash
• fatal
• accident
• Down
• Break
• indy
• 500
• 300
• las
• vegas
• 2011
• fatality
• kanaan
• andretti
• indycar
• rip
• death
• servia
• Tagliani
• Danica
• Patrick
• Briscoe
• Race
• Racing
• Speedway
• rahal
• hunter
• reay
• hinchcliffe
• castroneves
• cunningham
• sato
• Track
• townsend
• thomas
• scheckter
• jay
• howard
• scott
• dixon
• vitor
• meira
• dario
• franchitti
• charlie
• kimball
• Paul
• Tracy
• ej
• viso
• lloyd
• pippa
• mann
• will
• power
• conway
• buddy
• rice
• desilvestro
• de
• silvestro
• anna
• beatrice
• davey
• hamilton
• Nascar
• indianapolis
• motor
• wreck
• carpenter
• godaddy

[SilentOwlScribe]

Your breakdown of the horrific incident is incredible. I am incredibly sad by the accident for the entire racing community...as well as the MotoGP motorcycle racer who died today. As a future engineer, I am trying to analyze what happened. You are correct, it was 4 separate accidents that occurred in one general location.

BTW, I did not enjoy it at all. You shouldn't have said, "I hope you enjoyed it." No, I don't enjoy things like this, but I am always one to figure out what happened.

[kerrywsmyth]

@SilentOwlScribe Thank you. Yeah when you are an engineer if you are ever tasked to do an analysis of a horrible tragedy you'll find that the best way to do it is do emotionally separate yourself from the human part of it. In this case I might sound a little callus but I do recognize the tragedy that it is. When I say "I hope you enjoyed it" I mean I hope you enjoyed my break-down, not the wreck these drivers were in. Thanks for watching.

[DanicaFans]

Hamilton was fine. He was in the back with Ana and Simona, and they all made it down to the apron and through the wreckage. Not sure where Buddy Rice was in all this. He started in the back after dropping below the white line in qualifying as did Viso who had made changes to his car. I didn't print out a spotter guide, so I don't know what Rice's car looked like.

[kerrywsmyth]

@DanicaFans Oh, the reason I thought Hamilton must have wrecked is because he was just behind 18 James Jakes in the Running order on the live coverage. In case you forgot, Jakes was out of his car (undamaged) just after the wreck, so I assumed Hamilton must have been collected in there somewhere. If Davey made it through, then it must have been Rice that wrecked int Meira at 11:31 of my video.

[DanicaFans]

@kerrywsmyth Jakes was running at the back also, and was able to slow down enough that he pulled into the pits while everyone else was on the yellow lap, driving through the debris. He was stopped on pit road, but not in his pit.

I have to say that God was riding shotgun with Pippa Mann because she was caught right in the middle at the wall with Wheldon and Power. It's a miracle that she wasn't injured more seriously.

[kerrywsmyth]

@DanicaFans Yeah, Mann seemed to go into the wall cockpit first, and actually Will Power nearly was cockpit first into the wall as well. They were lucky to escape with their lives, but also Danica, Dixon and Franchitti were extremely lucky as well escaping it untouched. For them it seemed like a combination of being relatively forward, on the inside lane, the perfect amount of braking and a bunch of luck that got them out of it.

[jkeefe71]

I just viewed this and I have to say thanks for the time you put in to help people understand what took place. The only correction you need to make is in reguards to the second car airbourne, it was will (power) rice never went airbourne. Only 2 cars were high off the ground, wheldon first, power second. Hildebrand was front wheels up but not fully. If you do ever edit that's the only changes i'd make. But in the end it doesn't really matter much as we cannot change the outcome....

[1960twilight]

Thank you for breaking this down. Dan was my favorite. When a tragedy like this happens you feel it in your gut, you can;t believe it happened. Then your left trying to figure out how it happened. And we know it shouldn't have happened. Such a terrible loss. I will have a hard time watching the 500 this year without Dan. I really feel for his family, especially with the holidays upon us. I hope that they will all find some kind of peace.

[grantb22222]

so basically your saying if james hinchcliffe didnt move out this could have been avoided so its basically his fault damn you

[HFX1955]

Did Wheldon slow down at all? I guess we will have to wait for a report on the telemetrics but he seemed to come in to Tracey at full speed.

[DanicaFans]

@kerrywsmyth Update: Buddy Rice wasn't part of the main crashes, but was collected on the apron by another car sliding down the track.