I tuned in late to the race, to see the aftermath. The yellow tarps, told me it wasn't good. Initial reports were that everyone was alive, but some critical. They finally got one of the drivers to talk. Not really much was said. I went out and did some work. I came back, and there was a picture of Dan Weldon with dates underneath. -2011.
Not good. You could tell, this really shook the other drivers. One said he was retiring. He had been in a serious wreck some years back, and getting up in age. There have been other cars that went up in the air, and the driver survived. You can say open cockpit, but that did save Dale Ernhart. Some like Dale, and a few Indy crashes, didn't look like much. But how they hit etc. the driver must have recieved the full impact.
I remeber a wreck in the Busch races. It was Michale Waltrip. Darrel was co-announcing the race. Michealhit the entrance cement structure. It about flattened the car on the sides. Darrel, you could hear was in tears. The other announcer, didn't have many words. It looked like Mike would be mash. They pulled him out and put him on a gurney. He told his crew chief 'not to woory, they could rebuild the car.' So you just never know.
Tom