Dan Wheldon
Dan Wheldon
Daniel Clive Wheldonwas a British racing driver. He was the 2005 IndyCar Series champion and a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, having won the race in 2005 and 2011. Wheldon died from severe head injuries shortly after a collision during the IZOD IndyCar World Championship on 16 October 2011 at the age of 33...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth22 June 1978
cars close earlier engine felt hold line pick practice running speed strange strong teammates tony weekend
Tony and I did it to the Penskes earlier in the weekend in practice. If you've got two cars running in line very close to each other, you can pick up speed like that. It felt strange running up there by myself, because I'm used to having Tony or one of my other teammates around. But I had a strong enough engine to hold them off.
buddy disagree disappear fact happen hear indy lost momentum pushing series solely time tony
The one thing I do disagree with the IRL on is the fact that they are pushing Danica solely. ... Do you hear about Buddy Rice, who is the 2004 Indy 500 champion? Do you hear about my teammate, Tony Kanaan, who is the 2004 IndyCar Series champion? You really don't. With the momentum they've created, they shouldn't be pushing one person solely at this point. ... Because if Danica should happen to disappear and do something else, then you've lost that momentum and you haven't used the momentum you've got at the time to push other people.
bryan fast improvement last open phoenix push test time tony work
We push each other hard, ... We never give an inch. For instance, at the open test at Phoenix International Raceway last winter, I set a fast time and then Dario, Tony and Bryan all went out to better it and did. We always work on improvement and, as competitive as we've been, the friendships between us make it all work.
certainly courses experience feature level rely road somewhat strong teammates three tony
Dario is certainly going to be very, very strong on the road courses as Tony will. I've certainly got three teammates that are going to feature strongly. I think certainly with my experience level right now on the road courses, which is somewhat limited, I'm going to have to rely on them for some help.
california fifth fourth good happen obviously positions race third
I think California is going to be a really good race because obviously the championship has been decided, but second, third and fourth are up for grabs. There's going to have to be some big things happen for those positions to change. Then I think you have the fifth through 10th pretty close. I think everybody's going to be going for broke.
add certainly chased direction guide maintain matter nice people position pressure sure
I think for sure being chased is the position I want to be in. It does add pressure to the situation, and it's (a matter of) having the right people around you to guide you in the right direction and maintain focus. When you're leading, it's certainly a nice feeling.
screwed somewhat
I think Jenson somewhat screwed me up there,
certainly sometime
I thought I could do it sometime in my career, but certainly not this soon.
accident affects certainly nicest
It certainly affects me when you see an accident like that. It's not the nicest thing at all,
races six special strong winning
Winning the Indianapolis 500 was very special to me, ... but winning six races is something I'll look back on and think that was a strong season.
asking energy feeling helped indy means taken teammates thank three winning
My three teammates have really helped me, and I thank them for that. It's an unbelievable feeling to have this after winning the Indy 500 because that means so much to me. You think you're asking for too much for a championship. It's taken all the energy out of me.
beam bit car cost definitely gamble good hopefully klein race relatively
We didn't get everything we wanted to out of our qualifying run. The Klein Tools/Jim Beam car definitely had a little bit too much understeer and that cost us. It's so competitive out here that you've got to gamble a little bit, but we have a relatively good race car, so hopefully we'll get a good result.
looked truth
To tell you the truth, it looked very, very bad.
chicago ground hoping lost obviously swing toward
We obviously lost some ground toward the championship, which makes Chicago a very important race, ... I'm hoping we can get back in the swing of things.