The IRL and the entire racing community and fans, we have lost Paul Dana as a result of this morning's horrific crash at Homestead. My brother called me this morning and i just couldnt believe what i heard. Im in utter shock and disbelief.

May he rest in peace.

Holyshit...I just heard about this.

R.I.P.

Sad to hear, anyone know how it happened?

Sad to hear, anyone know how it happened?
Another car hit the wall, spun, slid down the track, other people voided him, but Paul unfortunately clipped the car.

Very sad, especially to see a loss so early into the season.

I was at lunch with my family when they showed a replay of the accident in real time. I hadn't seen it before, I literally jumped in my seat and freaked my wife out. There was no audio but I had a feeling something terrible had happened.

I feel terrible for the Dana family, may Paul rest in peace.

Another sad day in racing...

Carpenter's car slid and hit the wall near the exit of one of the turns. he slid and was about to come to a stop. Paul's spotter was saying go low go low but at speeds of about 216mph it was too late for him to react when Carpenter's car started to go low and Paul's car hit the rear end of Carpenter's car. Paul's car became airborne and thats when the car just about fell apart. Speeds vary from 179mph to 216mph at the time of impact but ive yet to hear of a reliable report.

The part of racing that we have a distaste for. The telemetry said the impact speed was 176mph. Indy cars freak me out. I lost a friend (Greg Moore) to an Indy car accident and days like this always freak me out. This was his dream and he died doing what he loved.

I watched some of the race right after it started. There were some mentions of an incident, but they didn't really go into it so I didn't know what happened. Then I saw the footage this evening... Scary.

RIP

And, before the body even cools, his brand-new widow gets shat upon by a Speed Channel assclown:

http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/22748/

Totally inappropriate & classless. I also watched him say these same things live on Speed News tonight.

:mad :mad :mad :mad :mad

That guy miller is a punk, but he sadly hits on a topic that is a small problem in todays world of professional racing.

It looks like Paul hit a part of Carpenter's car before the impact, and I guess he did not know those guys were slowing down for a crash.

:(

These comments are inappropriate on the day of the guy's death. There will be plenty of time to contemplate Paul's actions and the future of open wheel racing, but right now we should show the deceased some respect.

And, before the body even cools, his brand-new widow gets shat upon by a Speed Channel assclown:

http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/22748/

Totally inappropriate & classless. I also watched him say these same things live on Speed News tonight.

:mad :mad :mad :mad :mad



Inappropriate, maybe, for Miller to say some of those things on the day the guy died; but he did say the truth. Miller's a good guy; he just tells it like it is, and usually is right. Definitely not an assclown.

- IMO

Robin Miller is no punk; and he's sadly correct in this case.

He is an assclown for saying these things while the guy's body was still cooling.

There is a time & place for everything. Crapping in Dana's brand new widow by blaming him for his own death, mere hours after it occurred, is the depth of "if it bleeds, it leads" bullschit served up by attention whores pretending to be journalists.

Could he not have waited a mere 24 hours?

Reprehensible.

I feel exactly the same way.

While in my opinion he has a bit of truth to his arguments, he should have had more respect for the situation at hand. We are all entitled to our opinion's but he should have waited longer to come out to press with those kinds of words

And to use an "unnamed" other alleged "driver" to "substantiate" his opinion?

The worst of the worst gutter sludge. Speed Channel ought to be ashamed of themselves.

He used to be a columnist for the Indy Star here in town....not surprisingly he was fired a few years ago.

This in-car video shows Dana hit some of Carpenters debris as he was trying ot slow down...and shows what a douchebaggg Miller really is (and how wrong he likely is):

http://www.teamjuicyracing.com/vids/dana1.wmv

Yup, in my mind that video completely exonerates any poor decisions by Dana. In further defense of Dana, his spotter advised him to go low which was where the wrecked car was going. From looking at that video, it looks to me like Dana was going low and would likely have gotten around the wreck if he didn't hit debris...he also appeared to be slowing down before his front wheels came off the ground. At the worst Dana probably would've slid into the wreck which probably wouldn't have been fatal.

Edit: and if you look at the video, Dana is going no faster than the other cars around him. He was going low while the other cars were going high.

What??? You are nuts. Yes Robin is a jerk sometimes. It was a yellow flag people. Go low does not mean go low at 176mph. Look at Scott Sharps' in car. He saw the yellow and Dana passed him like he was standing still. No excuse for this tragic death. It is a racing incident.

He used to be a columnist for the Indy Star here in town....not surprisingly he was fired a few years ago.

Let's tell the whole story on that - he was fired because he wouldn't toe the company line on the I500 being the greatest race in the world, when in fact it's a shadow of it's former self. I agree he's a douche for not waiting, even if I also agree that the message he sends is not necessarily incorrect.

Was Carpenter ok?

Let's tell the whole story on that - he was fired because he wouldn't toe the company line on the I500 being the greatest race in the world, when in fact it's a shadow of it's former self. I agree he's a douche for not waiting, even if I also agree that the message he sends is not necessarily incorrect.

You're right, but I wasn't getting into why he was let go.

his comments were grossly inappropriate so soon

if im not mistaken,

Carpenter is in stable but critical condition?

if im not mistaken,

Carpenter is in stable but critical condition?

last i heard he was supposedly released sometime today, but i could be wrong.

RIP Paul Dana
1975-2006

RIP

It's sad to see something like this and then have a columnist bash him while his body is still warm. My prayers are with him and his family.

That is truly a shame, my heart goes out to the Dana family.

that being said, here are my other thoughts

Miller is right on the money, but out of respect he should have waited another day to voice his opinion. To that matter SpeedTV should have said no you need to wait a day.

But the strings here are ultimately being pulled by the FAUX Network. The same network that locally at 9:45 shows a clip of a cop being hit by a car on the highway and thrown 50 feet off the road and 20 feet up in the air (with no warning whatsoever), followed by "Tragedy on the highway! Details at 10:00!"


But again, my heart goes out to the Dana family.

it clearly shows Dana hitting debris that collapses his right front suspension. But we can always say the if's and but's

Miller was definatly right however his comments were very inapropriate for the time. Also dana should have been looking farther ahead, but to his credit by the time he saw him he hit debris which lifted the front of he car and prevent him from steering input.

it clearly shows Dana hitting debris that collapses his right front suspension. But we can always say the if's and but's


Which would have pulled him up toward the wall?

As I had a few days to reflect on Paul Dana's unfortunate accident and his dead I would like to make a few comments.
The comments were made that all the communication and radios were working properly so if the spotter told Paul to go low should he not have told Paul to go high as he must have anticipated that the car Paul hit was going to come down. Looks to me that the other drivers all went high and as far as the speed goes IMHO even if Paul had slowed down some, hard to do in such a short time the outcome would not have been much different.

i think the main issue at hand is the debris he hit and its consequence. As Bane2871 said, the car should have pulled right towards the wall, but there will always be should of, would of, could of's. I really do feel that if he hadnt hit that debris...he could of had avoided Carperter or hit him in a different way instead of the dead on route to the rear end of Carpenter's car.

I hope this doesnt become an enormous debate about the safety of Indy or motorsports as a whole, what could be done...what should have been done. We all know that this sport is dangerous and potentially deadly, its something that we all acknowledge even though we never want this to happen. Im sure Dana would like us all to keep on 'truckin in our passion

I guess it doesn't matter that the yellow had been out for some 7 seconds and he was still going at full speed while everyone else had slowed down....?

I guess it doesn't matter that the yellow had been out for some 7 seconds and he was still going at full speed while everyone else had slowed down....?

Check the video...it would appear the cars around him were the same speed although they were going high instead of low.

It's really a shame when a guy loses his life in the car. Sure, he's doing what he loves, but it's still a shame - especially when you think about the family left behind. I'll bet it send a chill through the other racing wives as well.

Question: I guess we'll hear about this in the future. Was there any kind of report that talks about the specifics of how Paul died? (Head trauma, body trauma, object through face shield, etc.) It seems like some guys get in worse wrecks and live. I remember seeing Kenny Brack's wreck in Texas a few years ago and was sure he'd been killed.

Check the video...it would appear the cars around him were the same speed although they were going high instead of low.


um.... watch scott sharp's (I think?) on-board. Everyone was slowing down but Dana.

Some of the articles I've read show that Paul passed at least two drivers (Lazier and Sharp) who had already slowed, and that there was as much as (almost) 8 seconds after the yellow was announced. Buddy Lazier commented that Dana was going way too fast and passed him.

Paul was pronounced dead 2 hours later at the hospital.

http://ap.peninsulaclarion.com/pstories/sports/20060327/3745654.shtml

Multiple traumas were cited in one article.

I've also read reports that the point of impact could have been 176 MPH (unconfirmed by IRL) and that Dana did not lift, except maybe until the very end.

More articles:

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/403380p-341635c.html

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/03/26/ap2622689.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14193329.htm

I've also read reports that the point of impact could have been 176 MPH (unconfirmed by IRL) and that Dana did not lift, except maybe until the very end.


Yup, 176 is what the onboard data said. Apex speed at Homestead is around 205mph for them, and impact speed was 176. 30mph can be lost very quickly in those cars, even just by lifting off the throttle.... in fact, IMO, it looks like he only lifted when he hit that peice of debris just before the impact.

it clearly shows Dana hitting debris that collapses his right front suspension. But we can always say the if's and but's
it doesn't seem like it collapsed the suspension, it looks like it just destroyed the right nose wing, maybe getting into the suspension, but it still looks intact on the video. what I want to know is what that white stuff is on the track just after Paul hits that piece of debris, after his car passes over it.
Jake

The white stuff looks like a tire being destroyed. It simply looks to me that he wasn't looking far enough up the course, which is one of the first things you learn in any form of racing. You're supposed to be as aware as possible of all of your surroundings at all times. It looks to me that he was more driving the track that was 10ft in front of him versus looking all the way down the back straight.

Another perspective I haven't heard anyone take is how good of a driver he was. Yes he bought into the sport with money, but he was second in points two years ago racing in the Indy Pro Series. You have to have a lot of talent to be able to do that. Also, he wasn't unfamiliar with formula styled open wheel cars, that's all he drove during his 10 year racing career.

My final points are that he qualified 9th out of 20, was only 3 tenths off the leaders and was the top qualifying rookie. Those points show his career was definitely looking up.

This was real hard for my girlfriend and I. We were there both days and saw him up close on Saturday. We arrived way after the crash and when we found out at the track it hit us hard.

On Saturday during the driver's autograph session, she points out a guy sitting next to Danica Patrick. He wasn't getting that much attention as Danica is the "in thing" now. Anyway, she felt sorry for him and she even mentioned it to me. Sunday comes around and we found out. Well, it devestated us.

Our hearts and prayers go out to him, his family, and his friends.

Godspeed Paul.

anyone ever notice this
http://www.beaverun.com/track_northdrive.asp

sadly, from the video it seems to me like there was some error in communication between driver-spotter.