Post by jenny123 on Jan 17, 2014 22:43:39 GMT -5
LAS VEGAS -- Race car drivers always know the worst can happen whenever they get behind the wheel. On Sunday, it happened to one of IndyCars biggest and most popular stars. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon died after his car became ensnared in a fiery 15-car pileup, flew over another vehicle and hit the catch fence just outside turn 2 in a season-ending race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "Things happen in this kind of racing," said Wade Cunningham, also caught up in the wreck. "Its so close. Not much room for error. I was near the front of what caused all this, so Im not thrilled about it. At this point, whose fault it was is kind of immaterial." The green flag had barely stopped waving when disaster struck. Wheldon, driving from the back of the field for a chance at US$5 million, was in the middle of the pack when he drove into a tangle of cars careening off each other in every direction. Unable to avoid the massive wreck unfolding before him, Wheldon clipped another car and went hurtling through the air, his car bursting into flames as it flew into a fence. After just 11 laps, the race was over. Two hours later, track officials announced that Wheldon was dead. He was 33. "One minute youre joking around at driver intros and the next, Dans gone," said Dario Franchitti, whose wife, actress Ashley Judd, had to bring him a box of tissues. "I lost, we lost, a good friend. Everybody in the IndyCar series considered him a friend. He was such a good guy. He was a charmer." With the speed -- close to 365 kilometres per hour during practice -- and a crowded 34-car field, a big worry was aggressive driving early in the 200-lap race. Chaos started when two cars touched tires and almost no one had time to react. Within seconds, several cars burst into flames and debris covered the track nearly halfway up the straightaway. Some points of impact were so devastating workers had to patch holes in the asphalt. "When we came around after the caution (flag) was thrown, I cant even describe to you what the scene looked like on the race track from our point of view," rookie driver James Hinchcliffe of Toronto told ABC. "It was unlike anything Id ever seen before in my life." Video replays showed Wheldons car turning over as it went airborne and sailed into whats called the catch fence, which sits over a barrier designed to give a bit when cars make contact. Rescue workers were at Wheldons car quickly, some furiously waving for more help to get to the scene. "Its unfortunate that early on in the race theyve got to be racing so close. ...," Team Penske owner Roger Penske said. "You always worry about those at these mile-and-a-halves at the speed and with this many cars." Three other drivers, including championship contender Will Power, were hurt in the pileup. Wheldon was airlifted from the track to University Medical Center; news of his death came from IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard: "IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race." In his honour, drivers, many sobbing openly, took part in a five-lap salute around the oval as thousands of fans stood and cheered from the grandstand. Wheldon, who came to the United States from England in 1999, won 16 times in his IndyCar career and was the series champion in 2005. Despite winning this years Indy 500, Wheldon couldnt put together a full-time ride this season. He was racing in Las Vegas on the same team as Alex Tagliani of Lachenaie, Que. "Its a very sad day," Tagliani said on his Twitter account. "He was my little brother from another mother." Also injured in the crash were JR Hildebrand and Pippa Mann. Both will remain in the hospital overnight. IndyCar said Mann was being treated for a burn to her right pinkie finger and will be released Monday morning; Hildebrand was awake and alert but will be held overnight for further evaluation. Power was evaluated and released. An autopsy was planned Monday for Wheldon. "Ill tell you, Ive never seen anything like it," Ryan Briscoe said. "The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because theres just stuff everywhere. Crazy." IndyCar has not had a fatality since Paul Dana was killed at Homestead in 2006, during a crash in a morning warmup. Wheldon won the race later that day. The accident appeared to start when Cunninghams car swerved on the track and Hildebrand drove over the left rear of Cunninghams car. Hildebrand appeared to go airborne, and Cunninghams car shot up into the wall, setting off a chain reaction among the cars behind him. Some of those cars slowed, others didnt, and others spun in front of Wheldon and Power. There was so much confusion on the track it was hard to tell who was driving what car. Power appeared to fly over Alex Lloyds car, rolling into the catch fence and landing on its right side. His in-car camera showed one of the front tires coming toward him in the cockpit. Wheldon then appeared to drive over a car driven by Torontos Paul Tracy, who seemed to be slowing down. Wheldon, however, went airborne and spun into the fence. "It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible," said Danica Patrick, making her final IndyCar start. "It was debris everywhere across the whole track. You could smell the smoke. You could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered." Wheldon landed in the Las Vegas race thanks to Bernards promise of $5 million to any moonlighting driver who could win the IndyCar season finale at Vegas. Although there were no takers, Bernard refused to scrap the idea and Wheldon was declared eligible for the prize, which would have been split with a fan. Asked about speed after the crash, Wheldons former boss Chip Ganassi said, "Therell be plenty of time in the off-season to talk about that. Now is not the time to talk about that." And Franchitti said: "I agree. Well discuss that and sort it out." But driver Oriol Servia didnt mince words: "We all had a bad feeling about this place in particular just because of the high banking and how easy it was to go flat. And if you give us the opportunity, we are drivers and we try to go to the front. We race each other hard because thats what we do," he said. "We knew if could happen, but its just really sad." Wheldon had been providing blog posts for USA Today in the days leading up to the Las Vegas race, and in one posted Saturday to the newspapers website he spoke of how he expected Sunday to be "pure entertainment." "This is going to be an amazing show," Wheldon wrote. "The two championship contenders, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, are starting right next to each other in the middle of the grid. Honestly, if I can be fast enough early in the race to be able to get up there and latch onto those two, it will be pure entertainment. Its going to be a pack race, and you never know how thats going to turn out." The accident spoiled what Bernard had hoped would be a showcase event for the struggling IndyCar Series. The second-year CEO worked the entire season on turning the finale into a spectacle, and said he would offer his resignation to the IndyCar board of directors if ABCs broadcast didnt pull a .8 ranking. His goal was to improve upon last years season finales horrible television rating and give the series some momentum for a strong season in 2013 with the introduction of a new car and new manufacturers. So Bernard poured everything into Las Vegas, renting the speedway from owner Bruton Smith and agreeing to promote the event himself. He landed enough sponsorship to at least break even on race, and the $5 million challenge bought him an enormous amount of publicity the entire year. Bernard got the Las Vegas Strip to close to stage a parade of cars, hosted industry parties and a blackjack tournament all to boost interest in the race. He even got MGM Grand Resorts to offer a pair of tickets to anyone staying this weekend in one of the chains 14 properties. But what was hoped to be a day of celebration quickly turned sombre. When drivers returned to the track for the tribute laps, Wheldons No. 77 was the only one on the towering scoreboard. Franchitti sobbed uncontrollably as he got back into his car for the memorial ride. The sound of "Danny Boy" echoed around the track, followed by "Amazing Grace." Hundreds of crew workers from each team stood at attention in honour of Wheldon. "What can you say? Were going to miss him," Ganassi said. "Everybody in IndyCar died a little today." Womens Lavelle Hawkins Super Bowl Jersey . "This wont be a long search. Were already down to two (candidates)," Leiweke told season ticket-holders at the MLS teams annual barbecue Sunday. Youth Andre Tippett Super Bowl Jersey . 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Womens Ryan Wendell Super Bowl Jersey . - For Sacramento fans, just seeing their Kings on the court was a victory after all the talk of moving at the end of last season.CLEVELAND -- Over on George Masons bench, a few players were mocking Jared Sullinger, Ohio States fleshy freshman who was frustrated and fuming. The Buckeyes were trailing and appearing vulnerable in the early moments of Sundays third-round game. The Patriots were getting physical, talking trash and taking it right at the East regionals top-seeded team -- the team with no obvious weaknesses -- and Sullinger, who had three quick turnovers. Thats when Ohio States centre bumped Patriots forward Ryan Pearson from behind and whispered some shocking news. "Its over, yo," Sullinger said, waving his hands. And it was, yo. Cleveland native David Lighty made all seven of his three-pointers and scored 25 points, Sullinger and William Buford added 18 apiece and Ohio State made 16 threes while again showing that its the team to beat in this NCAA tournament with a jaw-dropping 98-66 win. Sullinger chalked up his comment to Pearson as "the heat of battle." In the postgame news conference, the freshman made yet another startling comment. "We can play better," he said. Oh, dear. It would be hard to imagine a better performance than the one Ohio State put on before thousands of its fans, who didnt miss any opportunity to fill Quicken Loans Arena with chants of "O-H-I-O." With ruthless precision, the Buckeyes (34-2) took apart the eighth-seeded Patriots (27-7), who created some March mayhem a few years ago and hoped to follow Butlers lead by taking out a No. 1 seed in this tourney. Ohio State destroyed any upset plans and moved a step closer to its first national title since 1960. The Buckeyes will meet Kentucky (27-8) in the regional semifinals Friday in Newark, N.J. Ohio State is 5-0 in NCAA tournament matchups with the Wildcats. After falling behind 11-2, the Big Ten champions used their devastating inside-outside attack to post the most lopsided tournament victory in school history. Ohio State outscored George Mason 50-15 over the final 16 minutes of the first half with a dazzling display of offensive firepower. This was a Cleveland clinic. The Buckeyes had a 10-0 run, a 16-0 burst and made five 3-pointers over the final 5 minutes on the way to opening a 52-26 halftime lead. "Every time I looked up everybody was hitting a jumper or a three or something," Lighty said. Freshman guard Aaron Craft came off the bench and sparked Ohio State with 15 assists, many of them to the wings as the Buckeyes finished 16-of-26 behind the arc. Cam Long scored 16 and Pearson 13 for George Mason, which was in way over its head against the nations best all-around squaad.dddddddddddd "Theyre the toughest squad that we faced," Pearson said. "When they got guys thats just hitting on all cylinders, all night long, and theyre sharing the ball and theyre just going out there and just having fun, its kind of tough for the opponent to stop. "They just made shots. And even when we tried to cut the lead and come out, they just came right back at us, firing on all cylinders. Theyre a great program, theyre a tough team to beat. I think theyre going to go real far in this tournament." The challenge was daunting enough for the Patriots and then they found out before the game that they would face the Buckeyes without Luke Hancock, who came down with food poisoning. The sophomore guard, who scored 18 in the win over Villanova, came to the arena but got dizzy and was kept out. "He couldnt hold anything down," coach Jim Larranaga said. "They put him on IV fluids to see if he would respond to that, and never did." Even Hancock couldnt have helped. At one point, Buford and Diebler were a combined 2-of-9 from the field and Ohio State was still ahead by 15. There was nothing the Patriots could do but hope it would stop. After Lighty made his fifth three-pointer, Diebler, the Big Tens career leader in threes, finally got one to go. Buford then hit another three and Diebler, the kid nicknamed "3-bler" who perfected his jumper in the summer by making 1,000 shots per day, closed the half with one of his patented line-drive threes. He let out a primal scream and ran off the floor with the Buckeyes. As Sullinger promised, it was over. This was Ohio States day and one Lighty will cherish forever. A fifth-year senior, Lighty was a freshman on OSUs national runner-up team in 2007. But injuries -- he twice broke his right foot -- derailed a promising career. But he never stopped working on the floor or in the classroom, and on Sunday he was one of four Ohio State players to receive their diplomas. Because the graduating Buckeyes couldnt attend winter commencement in Columbus, the team held its own ceremony after the morning shootaround. Lighty, Diebler, Dallas Lauderdale and Nikola Kecman got their degrees and posed for pictures on the court wearing their caps. Coach Thad Matta beamed like a proud father, and he was touched for Lighty, Ohio States unquestioned leader. Afterward, an emotional Lighty hugged family members and friends who saw him play the game of his life in his final college game in Ohio. He was home, and it was sweet. "Couldnt be any better," he said. "A perfect ending." ' ' '