Posted on 03/26/2006 10:05:18 AM PST by thesharkboy
ESPN announced that Paul Dana died during practice at Homestead, FL.
Dangerous sport, to be sure.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Driver Paul Dana died after a two-car crash Sunday during the warmup for the season-opening Toyota 300 IndyCar Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The other driver, Ed Carpenter, was awake and alert at a Miami hospital, IRL officials said.
The race will start as scheduled, officials announced. However, Rahal Letterman Racing co-owner Bobby Rahal announced that drivers Danica Patrick and Buddy Rice, teammates of Dana, will not race.
"Obviously, this is a very black day for us," Rahal said. "This is a great tragedy."
Dana, 30, a former motorsports journalist with a degree from Northwestern, competed in three IRL races for Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing last year with a best finish of 10th in the race at Homestead.
Paul Dana died after suffering injuries in a horrific practice crash Sunday.
Carpenter, the stepson of Indy Racing League founder Tony George, spun his Vision Racing car exiting Turn 2 of the 1.5- mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval and hugged the outside wall before slowly creeping back onto the racing surface. It was nearly stopped when it was hit in the left-rear corner at nearly full speed by Dana's car.
Dana started three IndyCar Series races in 2005 for Hemelgarn Racing before breaking his back in a practice crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Dana qualified a career-best ninth for Sunday's race, which would have been his first with the Rahal-Letterman team.
Vision Racing team manager Larry Curry was more optimistic about Carpenter's condition. "I've been told he is awake and alert and is going to be fine," Curry said. "They want to check him out at the hospital, but he should be fine."
CHAMP/CART racing has just about abandoned oval racing.If it were stockshares it would be a strong buy.
It`s unfortunate an IRL driver dies while racing in a league (IRL) soon to die itself.
just saw the clip on tv. amazing they both didn't perish.
Where?
Paul Dana, RIP.
Do you know what burns me up? The announcer on Fox could not report the story WITHOUT mentioning Danica Patrick, jeez.
This is so tragic....I just saw the video on FOX....prayers up for family and friends.
They are on the same team...
Same team, owner pulled her car from race.Just about had to mention her.Probably also mentioned Buddy Rice, same reason.
Yes. But she said "Dana Paul, teammate of Danica Patrick, died...".
Who gives a rat's ass who his teammate is? Report the story, then give background.
The MSM will probably still report Patrick as being the race winner even though she won't be participating. After all, the screwballs in the MSM crowned her the winner of last year's Indy 500. Although she's married, Danica makes the boys in the MSM breathe hard.
Odd headline. It makes it sound as if he was driving and just died.
Apparently the crash happened this morning.
The craziest thing I've ever seen or heard about was motorcycle racing on ice [they used studded tires, but it was frightening even to look at them].
abc news cut-in
The race will be on ABC at 3:30pm EST today, I would guess they would show the accident.
How sad. But guess you can say he died doing what he loved best which is more than many of us will be able to say.
If the jet carrying the Lakers had an accident and a team member died, would the announcer mention Kobe Bryant?
If a gunman attacked the presidential carpool and killed a dignitary, would President Bush be mentioned by the Fox announcer?
Danica Patrick was THE story of IRL last year and her teammate got killed. What is your problem? Are jealous? Are you a woman who is jealous of her looks? Are you a man and Danica runs circles around the looks of your wife? Can you tell us all what your problem is in that a Fox announcer mentioned the racing teammates (including the most popular driver on the circuit) of the driver who died???
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