2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship

Did You Know?

• Wheldon agreed to start the race from thirty-fourth and last place as part of the organizers' five million dollar challenge.
• Rice was moved to the back of the grid after receiving a penalty for running below the white line.
• Unlike the FIA Code, which requires three laps for an official race, INDYCAR requires exceeding half the scheduled distance (101 laps) for a race to be official.

Report

The event was televised by ABC in the United States, with Marty Reid leading the commentary team alongside analysts Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever. Pit road reporters included Vince Welch, Rick DeBruhl, and Jamie Little. The IMS Radio broadcast featured Mike King and Josef Newgarden in the booth, with Mark Jaynes and Jake Query reporting from the track; Davey Hamilton served as in-race reporter. Las Vegas replaced Homestead-Miami Speedway as the season finale, returning to the IndyCar schedule for the first time since 2000.

The circuit had been reconfigured in 2006 with increased banking to promote side-by-side racing. The race was the final event for the Dallara IR-05 chassis, and the publicity encouraged multiple teams to field additional entries. The entry list totaled 34 drivers, five more than the previous race at Kentucky. This was the highest number of entrants for an American open-wheel event outside the Indianapolis 500 since the 1993 Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey, and the highest number of starters outside the Indy 500 since the 1983 Domino's Pizza 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Championship resolution

The accident on lap 11 ended the championship points battle, and Dario Franchitti would have clinched the title regardless of the race result. Because the event did not reach the halfway mark (101 laps), it was declared abandoned and no points were awarded; the driver point totals entering the race became final. The race was erased from IndyCar records, except for Tony Kanaan's pole position, which counted as his 15th. Franchitti earned his third consecutive and fourth overall championship, and Chip Ganassi Racing won its fourth consecutive title. Indy Racing League delayed official prize-giving until the State of IndyCar speech in February 2012, and Franchitti delayed his own celebration.

Reactions

At the time of his death, Wheldon was working with IndyCar officials to develop the ICONIC chassis, which planned larger cockpits and bodywork over the rear wheels to prevent cars from launching off one another. Prominent figures in IndyCar and international motorsport expressed condolences. Wheldon had been scheduled to race in the Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars event on October 22 alongside James Courtney; Courtney called the accident a sobering reminder of racing dangers.

Organizers of the V8 Supercars series planned tributes, and Darren Turner replaced Wheldon, with Wheldon's name left on the car. British drivers used helmet decals, and several others planned individual tributes. Tony Kanaan withdrew from the Gold Coast 600 out of respect, but Ryan Briscoe, Alex Tagliani, Hélio Castroneves, Sébastien Bourdais, and Simon Pagenaud did race. Bourdais received the Dan Wheldon Memorial Trophy as the best-performing International driver.

Sam Schmidt, for whom Wheldon was driving, said the events prompted him to re-evaluate his involvement in motorsports. In NASCAR, several drivers at the 2011 Good Sam Club 500 put tributes on their cars, including the Lionheart Knight decal from Wheldon's helmet.

Legacy

Since Wheldon's death, emphasis has been placed on eliminating pack racing through changes to tires and downforce levels on high-banked ovals, particularly at Texas Motor Speedway. Pack racing has reappeared occasionally, notably at the 2015 MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway, where Ryan Briscoe went airborne, and the 2017 Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas, where only a handful of drivers finished without serious injury. Dallara christened the ICONIC chassis the DW12 in tribute to Wheldon.

Talk of cockpit protection accelerated after Jules Bianchi's fatal Formula One accident in October 2014 and Justin Wilson's death in August 2015 at Pocono; A.J. Allmendinger stated he would never again run open-wheel cars without a closed cockpit. Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Three, and Formula E introduced the halo in 2018, and IndyCar instituted the Aeroscreen in 2020. The rear wheel pods introduced in 2012 to prevent cars from becoming airborne proved ineffective, as major crashes still occurred—including Dario Franchitti's career-ending crash in 2013 at Houston and Scott Dixon's launch in the 2017 Indianapolis 500. The pods were often ripped off by light contact, creating debris, and were eliminated for 2018.