Dan Wheldon, 1978-2011

Dan Wheldon was IndyCar. The 33 year old father of two was exactly what the sport needed.  A charming, fan-friendly, winning driver. His win at this year's Indianapolis 500 was the greatest sporting moment I have ever witnessed. Instead of just talking about how much of a great person and champion Dan was, I thought I would simply illustrate it. Below are some of the photos I have taken of Dan over the past couple of years. I posted these pictures to remember Dan Wheldon as the great driver, champion, and, most importantly, amazing human that he was. God speed, Dan.

I know this may not be the best of the bunch, but it has the most meaning to me. Me and my friends were yelling all the drivers' names during the 2009 parade. Dan loved it, and pumped his arms to tell us to get louder. We did and he flashed the biggest smile.

Here is Dan during the 2010 parade pumping his fist at me and my group again.

My final picture was taken just before the green flag of Dan's next to last race in Kentucky.

And finally, here is my video of Wheldon's greatest moment- the 2011 Indianapolis 500.

Video: Kentucky Indy 300

Here is a selection of my best pictures and videos from the great race in Kentucky on Sunday!

Carpenter Covers Kentucky

Ed Carpenter had always been strong at Kentucky Speedway. Back-to-back 2nd places finishes in 2009 and 2010 further backed that up. Sunday, however, he gained that one last position.

In a thrilling 23 lap side by side battle with new points leader Dario Franchitti, the 30 year old Carpenter edged out the Scotsman by .009 seconds to win his first career IndyCar race.  Not only was it the first win for the veteran, but it was also the first IndyCar win of any kind for team owner Sarah Fisher.  In one of the most emotional moments in recent IndyCar memory, the new mother Fisher finally broke through to victory lane in a track in which she also had some driving success.

The 200 lap was ran pretty clean on the track throughout, but was marred by several incidents on pit road.  Entering the race as the points leader, Will Power had the dominant car for the first 80 laps of the race, until he collided with Ana Beatriz.  The contact put a large hole in the side of the number 12 Team Penske machine, but he was able to finish the race in 19th.  Other drivers who had their day affected by pit late crashes were Marco Andretti, JR Hildebrand, EJ Viso, Simona de Silvestro, and Alex Lloyd.

In the Indy Lights race, Stefan Wilson took advantage of his P1 starting position to hold off Josef Newgarden for the win.  A first lap crash took out 5 of the 13 competitors, but the show still proved to be very entertaining.  As a result of his 2nd place finish, Newgarden clinched the 2011 Indy Lights Series Championship with 1 race still to run.

The Izod IndyCar Series has 1 more race to decide it's champion, October 15th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Dario Franchitti leads Will Power by 18 heading in to the final round of the season.