PAUL DANA DIES AT HOMESTEAD

IndyCar Series driver Paul Dana died Sunday after a horrendous accident during a warm-up lap at Homestead Raceway in preparation for the Toyota Indy 300, the opening bell of the IndyCar Series season.

Dana, who was making his first appearance for the Rahal-Letterman team after recovering from a broken back suffered last year, hit Vision Racing driver Ed Carpenter after Carpenter slid into the corner two wall and had almost come to a full stop. Dana appeared to have hit at nearly full speed, which would be in excess of 210 mph. Carpenter was kept over night at the hospital, but is expected to be okay. Dana, a Rookie of the Year contender this year, was from St. Louis. He was 31 years old. Carpenter, of Indianapolis, is 25.

Rahal-Letterman DNF’d Dana’s teammate’ cars (Buddy Rice and Danica Patricks) for the race. The opener was won — literally by less than a foot — by Dan Wheldon (Target-Ganassi-Honda-Dallara) who beat Helio Castroneves (Mobil-Penske-Honda-Dallara) to the line in an incredible wheel-to-wheel (with a touch or two) battle.

My condolences to the Dana family.


NASCAR NEWS

Race five of the Nextel Cup was held at the infamous Bristol half-mile, and the race was the usual survival test: crashes, mangled cars, short tempers, more mangled cars and more crashes. There were 18 yellow flags, two shy of the record that has been reached three times.

Oft maligned comeback kid, Kurt Busch driving the Penske Miller Lite 2 car, pushed race leader Matt Kenseth out of the way with three laps to go, and held off Kevin Harvick for the win. Kenseth and Jeff Gordon, who was running fourth at the time, pl,ayed tag resulting in Gordon dropping into the 20s, as well as some pushing and shoving after the race.

It was an all-Busch weekend — little brother Kyle won the Busch race Saturday. He also finished in eighth today.

Points leader Jimmy Johnson cut a tire early and was never a factor.

The points lead swung quite a bit: Kenseth now leads with Kahne eight points behind. Johnson, Martin, K. Busch, Earnhardt, J. Gordon, Mears, Stewart and Jarrett, round out the top 10.