IRL Loses Driver Before Season Starts

The Indy Racing League didn't even make it to the green flag in their first race of the season before they lost a driver in an accident:

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – IndyCar Series driver Paul Dana was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital – a Level 1 trauma center – in Miami just before noon (EST) from injuries suffered in a race warm-up crash at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Driver Ed Carpenter will remain in the hospital overnight for observation, according to Dr. Henry Bock, the Indy Racing’s League’s senior director of medical services. Scans showed nothing broken. Both drivers were airlifted to the trauma center.

About two minutes (10:03 a.m. EST) into the session in preparation for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Carpenter’s car spun and made contact with the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier, and then slid down the racetrack. It almost came to a stop when it was struck in the left-rear by Dana’s car traveling at full speed.

I saw tape of the accident, and it was pretty bad. Carpenter's car was at a dead stop on the track when he was hit at full speed by Dana (I actually thought that the fatality was in the stopped car, given the way it was hit).

Racing is a tough business, and even in practice, bad things can happen.