Motorsports

Posted: Monday, August 24, 2015 9:10 pm

Associated Press |

IndyCar driver Justin Wilson has died from a head injury suffered when a piece of debris struck him at Pocono Raceway. He was 37.

IndyCar made the announcement on Monday night at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Wilson is a British driver who lived outside Denver in Longmont, Colorado. He was hit in the head during Sunday's race by piece of debris that had broken off another car. Wilson's car veered into an interior wall at the track, and he was swiftly taken by helicopter to a hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The last IndyCar driver to die because of an on-track incident was Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon, who was killed in the 2011 season finale at Las Vegas after his head hit a post when his car went airborne.

Early Lead
By Des Bieler and Cindy Boren August 25 at 7:30 AM 

Veteran IndyCar driver Justin Wilson died Monday night from a head injury suffered during a race Sunday. The 37-year-old Englishman had been in a coma at a hospital near Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway, where the tragic accident occurred.

Mark Miles, the chief executive of IndyCar’s parent company, Hulman and Company, made the official announcement. He said that Wilson had passed away with his family by his side, including a wife, two young daughters and a brother, Stefan, who is an IndyCar driver in his own right, although he was not in Sunday’s race.

Wilson was struck by debris that flew off of a competitor’s car when that vehicle spun out and hit a wall. Wilson tried to steer around the wreckage, as other drivers had, but a detached nose cone that was bouncing along the track hit him in the head. The race was stopped as Wilson was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Allentown, Pa.

Wilson is the second IndyCar driver killed on a track in the last four years. Dan Wheldon, winner of the 2011 Indianapolis 500 and, like Wilson, a Brit, was killed in October 2011 during the final race of the season in Las Vegas. He was killed when his head hit a fence post on a crash.

Morning Mix
By Michael E. Miller August 25 at 7:30 AM

One was an American prodigy: a buff, blue-eyed, blond-haired god of gasoline; a scandalous, social-media-savvy speed demon considered by some to be the savior of a shrinking sport.

The other was a beloved British veteran: a journeyman with few sponsors but a loyal family; a small-town driving instructor who begged and bargained his way into one of the world’s most elite sports only to be betrayed by bad luck and his own body.

One, Sage Karam, was on his way up the sport of race car driving; the other, Justin Wilson, on a slow slide down.

On Sunday, their lives intersected for a terrible instant on the race track, their fates intertwined by a “fluke” accident and a flying piece of metal.