The spectacular and fatal 15-car crash at IndyCar’s last race of the season Sunday brought to a sudden, skidding halt any momentum that the IndyCar Series had created to rebuild next season.
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With IndyCar struggling for fans and funds, CEO Randy Bernard had hyped Sunday's finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway all year with promotions to lure spectators and attract TV viewers. For the first 10 laps of the race, it looked like he might have succeeded. Not only were the two season leaders starting right next to each other in a bid to win the series championship, Dan Wheldon, two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, had accepted a $5 million challenge to start dead last and win the race.
But a fiery 15-car pileup on the 11th lap changed all that. Wheldon’s car went airborne, turned over, and crashed into a fence at the border of the track.
He was killed; three other drivers were injured. The race was stopped and the season was over.
Before the crash, IndyCar was already facing several financial challenges, including a notably low level of profitability since its 1996 inception. The fan base has been eroding. TV ratings for last year’s championship were disastrous. Excluding various special adjustments, net income for the third quarter fell to $11.5 million, down from $12.3 million a year ago. - http://www.csmonitor.com/
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