Sunday’s tragic death of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon in a 15-car wreck in a race in Las Vegas underscored the one truism that racers everywhere know.

The business is a dangerous one.

Driving a tiny, carbon fiber tub at 218 mph kept horizontal by an array of aerodynamic fins, spoilers and louvers on a one- or two-groove oval track is an unnatural act.

For starters, the rotation speed (the speed at which lift occurs on an airplane enough for the nosewheel to leave the ground) on a Boeing 747 is 150 mph. On airplanes, the keyword is lift. For race cars, the opposite, called downforce, is required. Both use aerodynamic solutions for different means.

One is natural. The other is trying to fight the laws of physics, as the slippery shape of an open-wheel car wants to leave the surly bonds of terra firma if not planted thanks to the aerodynamic aids that generate downforce. Those devices apply massive gravitational forces, or g-forces, like those fighter pilots suffer in turns, making driving an open-wheel car a physically taxing proposition.

With that in mind, it’s a wonder that more drivers aren’t killed in open-wheel racing. The cars, depending on the track, are anywhere from 20 to 40 mph faster than a stock car. Reacting to things happening on the track goes from seconds to milliseconds. The open cockpit design provides little protection. If two cars collide wheel-to-wheel, thanks to a gear-like effect, one of those cars is going airborne and that can happen when two wheels briefly touch.

And it isn’t just the drivers who are in peril when the “big one” happens. In 1999, a wheel spun past the catch fencing at Charlotte and killed three fans at the IndyCar race there after another car struck it.

The speeds on an oval track aren’t like those on a road course, where the frequent turns and chicanes keep them in check.

Sunday’s field at Las Vegas was too big with 34 cars on the track. It’s one thing for 43 Sprint Cup stock cars to be packed nose-to-tail on an oval, but 34 missiles on four wheels just one bit of contact from disaster is quite another.

Indycar, like NASCAR in 2001, faces a crossroads. It’s one thing when the stars of a particular sport are retiring. But when they are dying, that’s when your sport has a serious problem.

Football has its own problems, with the head injury issue clouding its future. But football players don’t step on the field with the expectation they could die there.

IndyCar drivers do. That’s why some common sense steps need to be taken.

The cars must be slowed down, considerably, if they are going to race on ovals safely. The drivers must be better protected. IndyCar drivers will get a new chassis with improved visibility and protection for the driver and a system to prevent airborne accidents caused by the wheels locking together, but a closed cockpit is the only way to protect drivers from the kind of head injuries suffered by Wheldon.

We can’t have a defect-free, perfect world. Even in the face of new safety measures, it’s impossible to bend the laws of physics and make racing at 225 mph as safe as a 10-minute trip in your family car to the grocery store.

But any improvement in this arena would be a good one and could save a life.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.