Horrible crash in paractice this morning. Paul Dana was killed. Condolences to his family and friends.
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=1&id=2384873
Driver Paul Dana died after a two-car crash Sunday during the warmup for the season-opening IRL IndyCar Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The other driver, Ed Carpenter, was awake and alert at a Miami hospital, IRL officials said.
The race will start as scheduled, officials announced.
Dana, 30, a former motorsports journalist with a degree from Northwestern, competed in three IRL races for Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing last year with a best finish of 10th in the race at Homestead.
Paul Dana died after suffering injuries in a horrific practice crash Sunday.
Carpenter, the stepson of Indy Racing League founder Tony George, spun his Vision Racing car exiting Turn 2 of the 1.5- mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval and hugged the outside wall before slowly creeping back onto the racing surface. It was nearly stopped when it was hit in the left-rear corner at nearly full speed by Dana's car.
Dana started three IndyCar Series races in 2005 for Hemelgarn Racing before breaking his back in a practice crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Dana qualified a career-best ninth for Sunday's race, which would have been his first with the Rahal-Letterman team.
Vision Racing team manager Larry Curry was more optimistic about Carpenter's condition. "I've been told he is awake and alert and is going to be fine," Curry said. "They want to check him out at the hospital, but he should be fine."
Information from ESPN.com's John Oreovicz and The Associated Press was used in this report.