Driver Killed in IRL practice

[Vern Gagne 0]

yahoosports.com

 

That was a very disturbing accident. Full speed into the back of Carpentier's car.

[Hawk 34 0]

There's no logical reason for Dana to not known to slow down. He had warnings from his spotter, crew and the caution lights were on instantly. There's no signs that his brakes weren't on because he did apply the brakes before impact and the fact he applied the brakes indicate that he saw the parked car, and should have avoided the car.

 

The cars around him that he passed had slowed down already as well. I doubt that Paul Dana froze because you don't get in a 230 MPH car and freeze up. Some point to his inexpierence but he wasn't some kid in a car for the first time.

 

It was an horrible accident and it's a blessing that Carpenter survived without injury.

 

We don't need to examine the dangers of the sport, that's been covered and every driver accepts it. For every saftey precaution (most of the recent saftey changes have shown to be succesful in doing their job), you still cant defeat the odds that eventually, driving 200+ mph with tight corners and high banks will kill someone.

 

What makes this one sad is that it was a smart young man (journalism major) with unlimited potential seeing that dream snuffed out hours before he could reach it and the fact we will probably never figure out what caused his accident will make this a sadder case then usual.

[Red Baron 0]

He was told by his crew chief to stay low, but I don't know why he didn't slow down.

[the pinjockey 0]

I do blame it mostly on his inexperience. At those speeds it isn't freezing as much as slower reactions where a half second seperates the veterans from the rookies. If you watch Scott Sharp's in car camera (was side by side with Dana coming into the turn), Sharp slows right away and it only takes a half second to a second for Dana to be in no man's land. I also wouldn't put it past an inexperienced driver to hear "go low" and treat it like a yellow light where he tries to beat the hole closing instead of just stopping short.