DURING HIS legendary racing career Mario Andretti saw drivers killed in crashes. And yet, Andretti and his contemporaries kept climbing back in their race cars.
"You're safer in the race car than you are in cars going to and from the track," Andretti said Tuesday from his Nazareth, Pa., home during an interview about the IndyCar Series crash that killed Dan Wheldon Sunday at Las Vegas. "If a neighbor is killed in a car accident, do you sell your car and stop driving?
"Of course, there are risks [in racing]. If there's no risk, there's no spectators and no drivers. But we've minimized the risks over the years. We'll learn from [Wheldon's death]."
Andretti, 71, pointed out that the other 14 drivers involved in the Vegas crash were not seriously hurt. Wheldon's car went airborne when it collided with other cars and smashed into the catch fence above the SAFER barriers.
"At Talladega, [NASCAR drivers] say they're always waiting for the Big One. This was our Big One," Andretti said.
Andretti held his breath following the Vegas crashes because his grandson Marco was in his 100th IndyCar race.
Since Wheldon had no full-time ride this year, despite winning his second Indianapolis 500, he was testing the new Indy cars for next season. The cars will have new engines and chassis.
Andretti said the rear wheels on the new cars will be partially covered to prevent them from locking. As we saw at Vegas, when the current Indy cars touch wheels at 220 mph, they can get airborne. Indy cars are much lighter than stock cars and thus more likely they'll launch.
Unlike some NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, Jeff Gordon looks forward to racing at Talladega. He leads active drivers with six wins there. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a five-time winner at the big 'Bama oval.
In the sixth race in the 10-race Chase on Sunday, the cars will have their restrictor plates increased by 1/64th of an inch, and now will be 57/64th-inch diameter. The idea is to give the cars seven to 10 more horsepower and break up those annoying two-car, high-speed dances seen earlier this year at Talladega and Daytona.
Kurt Busch, seventh in the Chase standings and 0-for-43 in Cup restrictor-plate races, thinks tandem racing will still occur.
