Well, as we continue to mourn the death of our friend and as time continues to pass, the inevitable questions arise and have been making their way through the talk show and sport show circuit. Was he ready? Was there anything that could have been done to prevent it? Should the race have been cancelled?

Its easy to disassociate ourselves with the death itself by asking questions about its surroundings. We always look back and try and figure out what could have been done or should have been done. Regardless of all the hindsight’s, it changes very little in the nature of our sport.

Well, to a certain extent. Sometimes changes are done after these incidents. NASCAR made a lot of rule changes following the death of #3. I think its safe to say that IRL won’t do anything here. They haven’t before, why would they now? The safest thing the IRL could do is park its cars permanently. Indy Cars aren’t meant to go on those tracks at those speeds. And yes, you can say that Champ Cars used to run on those tracks at well. But there is a difference between running 5 ovals a year as opposed to 15. With all your races on ovals, you just continue to tempt fate. With only 5, at least you decrease the odds of horrific accidents. Decrease them, but, unfortunately we all know they happen.

Which leads me to the question that has marked me the most since the death. The question of “should the race have gone on”. This is when the debate gets heated because you can make a case for both sides. Yes, the race should have gone on. It’s a once a year event for the spectators, its what Paul would have wanted, it’s a dangerous sport, they know the risk and the show must go on.

Personally, I think the race should have been cancelled. I think its wrong to run a race so soon after one of the drivers passes on. Had his ultimate state not been determined by race time, I would have been okay with the race running. But everybody knew he had passed away. And despite it being part of the sport, the fact is, it happens so rarely that we should put things on hold when such a tragedy happens. The excuse that it’s a dangerous sport doesn’t cut it with me. Yes, it is a dangerous sport and death has been part of it since the beginning. But death is also part of life and we stop and mourn and put things on hold when someone close to us passes away. Postponing the race until Monday or a later day would certainly complicated things for the IRL, for the fans and for the teams. But guess what? Deal with it. A tragic, and fortunately, a rare occurrence happened on Sunday and the show did NOT need to go on.
It’s the fact that these deaths don’t happen so often anymore which makes them all the more significant.