Like most of our audience, I am a NASCAR fan. My Dad was a short tracker and every Saturday night we loaded up and went to the local bullrings around Oregon, Washington and sometimes Canada. When I was working in radio in the Phoenix market I was fortunate to have unlimited access to Phoenix International Raceway and through that was introduced to the CART series to which I became a fan of also. I like many race fans became disenchanted with open wheel racing over the years and only followed the big races like Indy or any big interesting stories.
The one thing the open wheel series all missed was the one thing that makes NASCAR so special...driver accessibility and fan interaction. Only a few open wheel drivers really seemed comfortable with with the fan interaction, Billy Vukovich III, Al Unser Jr., Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon. I had the opportunity to be involved with Dan Wheldon a couple of different times, both times he was a very gracious person that seemed to have endless time for his fans, taking pictures, signing autographs and answering the endless questions.
Dan won the Indy 500 this year in a car sponsored by Curb Records ( Tim McGraw, Rodney Atkins, Leann Rimes, Lee Brice) and Big Machine Label Group (Taylor Swift, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, The Band Perry, Justin Moore, Brantley Gilbert, Sunny Sweeney) on the last lap, in the last turn of the race. It was a dream come true for Scott Borchetta, Mike Curb and Dan Wheldon.
Dan Wheldon did not have a full ride this season but spent most of his time working with the IndyCar Series to develop a safer chassis for the 2012 season. One of the new safety features for next season was rear tire covers that would have prevented the 11th lap wreck in Las Vegas where Dan Wheldon lost his life. Ironically, Dan had just signed a contract with Andretti Green racing to replace the departing Danica Patrick next season.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Wheldon family, his wife Susie, his 2 year old son Sebastian, and Oliver who will turn 7 months old on Wednesday.
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