Post by The Stig on May 29, 2011 23:11:06 GMT -5
For those of you who haven't seen it, the finish of the 2011 Indy 500 was easily the most dramatic in the 100 year history of the sport.
The major talking point of course is JR Hildebrand's crash in the last corner. Hildebrand is one of the new crop of American rising stars in Indycar. He's got a really bright future ahead of him, but I doubt he'll ever live that last corner down. Ironically, one of the other potential American stars of the future is Charlie Kimball, the driver who Kimball was trying to lap in the last corner when he crashed.
Sadly, one of the things that has been lost in the Hildebrand story is the story of the race winner, Dan Wheldon, and his Bryan Herta Autosport team. BHA isn't even a full-time Indycar team - they're an Indy Lights team that ran the Indy 500 last year and this year. They started last year's Indy 500 in dead last, having only qualified because of crazy sequence of events during qualifying. For them to win the 500 is like a D3 team winning March Madness.
As for Wheldon, he's a former Indy winner and series champion. A few years ago he was with Ganassi, the top team in Indycar, but his performances started to fade and the team dumped him. Panther Racing picked him up, but he never won for them, so they dumped him at the end of last season in favor of a rookie (JR Hildebrand). Wheldon was left high and dry for this season. All he had was an Indy 500 contract with the tiniest team in the series, run by his friend and former teammate Bryan Herta.
The ironic thing is that while Dan Wheldon and Bryan Herta were celebrating in victory lane after the race, Wheldon was officially unemployed, and Herta was not an Indycar series owner anymore, since their deals only covered the Indy 500. Fortunately, the Indy prize money should cover them for a few mores races!
So while everybody feels bad for JR Hildebrand, most people in the racing world feel pretty good about the Indy 500 result anyways, since Wheldon and Herta's stories took almost every Hollywood sports movie cliche and played them out in real life. It's stuff like this that makes you love being a racing fan.
The major talking point of course is JR Hildebrand's crash in the last corner. Hildebrand is one of the new crop of American rising stars in Indycar. He's got a really bright future ahead of him, but I doubt he'll ever live that last corner down. Ironically, one of the other potential American stars of the future is Charlie Kimball, the driver who Kimball was trying to lap in the last corner when he crashed.
Sadly, one of the things that has been lost in the Hildebrand story is the story of the race winner, Dan Wheldon, and his Bryan Herta Autosport team. BHA isn't even a full-time Indycar team - they're an Indy Lights team that ran the Indy 500 last year and this year. They started last year's Indy 500 in dead last, having only qualified because of crazy sequence of events during qualifying. For them to win the 500 is like a D3 team winning March Madness.
As for Wheldon, he's a former Indy winner and series champion. A few years ago he was with Ganassi, the top team in Indycar, but his performances started to fade and the team dumped him. Panther Racing picked him up, but he never won for them, so they dumped him at the end of last season in favor of a rookie (JR Hildebrand). Wheldon was left high and dry for this season. All he had was an Indy 500 contract with the tiniest team in the series, run by his friend and former teammate Bryan Herta.
The ironic thing is that while Dan Wheldon and Bryan Herta were celebrating in victory lane after the race, Wheldon was officially unemployed, and Herta was not an Indycar series owner anymore, since their deals only covered the Indy 500. Fortunately, the Indy prize money should cover them for a few mores races!
So while everybody feels bad for JR Hildebrand, most people in the racing world feel pretty good about the Indy 500 result anyways, since Wheldon and Herta's stories took almost every Hollywood sports movie cliche and played them out in real life. It's stuff like this that makes you love being a racing fan.