Button was very very close to him and refuses to race Indy because of that still not really resolved safety issue on tracks like that.
That one hit close to home, literally.
He lived in my hometown (where I still currently live) and was a neighbor to my Grandmother when I was in my early-mid teens.
Just a super nice guy...any time I was at my Grandmas and he was outside I would wave at him fanatically and he'd wave back.
I eventually was able to get up the nerve to actually talk to him and I did so a few times.
My grandmother died in late 08 right before he was released from Target Chip Ganassi and I moved away for college at the beginning of 09.
2011 was crazy. I actually talked to him about 6 months before his crash in Vegas.
He did not have a full time ride so he was just hanging out at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix (hometown) when I saw him.
Hadn't seen him in a couple years but he actually remembered me which I thought was pretty cool.
Anyway I was stoked to hear he would actually be running the Indy 500 that year and damn what a crazy race that turned out to be.
For those of you who don't remember, the rookie that took Wheldon's car after he got fired from Panther racing was J.R. Hildebrand.
Hildebrand was running in first place on the last lap and went high on the FINAL CORNER and hit the wall, allowing Wheldon to make the pass for 1st to win the Indy 500. It was the best racing moment I had seen to date and I doubt will ever beat that in my book.
A few months later it is announced he will be running an interesting race in Vegas.
Interesting meaning that it was a race with a $5,000,000 challenge. Any racer currently not in Indy could enter, and start from the back of the grid.
If there were to finish first, they would win the prize money.
Wheldon had agreed to split that money with a fan if he won...what a guy.
And well, that was the race that took his life....
