When Tony Kanaan arrived home following the IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway, his wife asked him why he continued to race in a series that has such high risk.
Justin Wilson had been airlifted out of the track earlier that day after being hit in the head with a piece of debris from another car. He was in a coma, fighting for his life, and Kanaan’s wife was one of many who wondered why the drivers were putting their lives on the line week after week. Lauren Kanaan pointed out that her husband had won the Indianapolis 500, accomplished all of his goals, and earned a very nice living in 18 years of American open-wheel racing.
His answer was simple.
“No one puts a gun to our heads and makes us do this,” Kanaan said. “We’re not rich, but we certainly won’t starve if I don’t do this. But I do it because I can’t live without it.”
That’s the mentality of drivers, and none put themselves in as much danger as they do in the IndyCar Series. Wilson died Monday night from his injuries, just four years after Dan Wheldon was killed in the IndyCar season finale in a horrific crash.
Wilson’s death from what by all accounts was simply a fluke accident has again thrust the series into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, and it comes as IndyCar heads into Sunday’s season finale looking to crown a new champion.
Six drivers are eligible for the title, including points leader Juan Pablo Montoya, who returned to IndyCar last season after stints in NASCAR and Formula One.
His comeback year has included a second win in the Indianapolis 500, 15 years after his first victory.
Montoya takes a 34-point lead into Sonoma, California, over Graham Rahal, an American having a breakout year. He has two wins driving for his father’s race team and seeks to give the Rahal name its first title since his father’s 1992 championship.
All that could be overshadowed by Wilson’s death in a year IndyCar has seemingly bounced from one crisis to another.
IndyCar had to cancel its opener in Brazil over a promoter issue. The season began with a good race in Florida, but it was marred by the debut of the cars’ new aerodynamic bodykits, which proved too brittle for even the slightest contact.
The streets of St. Petersburg were littered with broken parts and pieces, and a chunk of debris sailed over the grandstands and struck a pedestrian. IndyCar required Honda and Chevrolet to make structural upgrades.
Two weeks later, the inaugural race in New Orleans was a rainy, caution-filled train wreck. And the lead-up to the showcase Indianapolis 500 was marred by three accidents in which cars went airborne, and a fourth incident in which James Hinchcliffe nearly bled to death when his leg was punctured by a broken piece of a crashed car.