Dan Wheldon and Brian Herta
[h=2]PRUETT: Herta on Wheldon's legacy, 5 years later[/h] Marshall Pruett / Images by IMS Photo, LAT
Bryan Herta lost his dear friend, driver and teammate Dan Wheldon five years ago this Sunday in a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and like so many I've spoken to this week, the ordeal has felt incredibly distant and recent at the same time.
"Has it been five years already?" Herta said. "Intellectually, I know it's five years, but it's strange. In some ways it seems like it couldn't be five years already, but in other ways, it seems longer."
It's the inevitable outcome when a vivid character like Wheldon is taken from a sport where lively personalities are increasingly hard to find. The distance – five years – is long enough to have normalized Wheldon's absence, but to those who knew the Briton, or grew to root for him from afar, it's more than likely his presence has remained current and fresh.
Whether it's as an ongoing inspiration or some other motivational force, Wheldon continues to play an important role with many of those he touched during his 33 years. Herta's team, the once-little Bryan Herta Autosport, was catapulted into Victory Lane at the 2011 Indy 500 thanks to Danny Boy, and with the team's increasing prosperity, it remains as one of Wheldon's great legacies.
Five years out from that dark day in Las Vegas, the rise of Herta's IndyCar team – one that is now merged with Andretti Autosport and won the 2016 Indy 500 carrying the same car number – stands as a testament to Wheldon's undeniable influence.
"I still think about him a lot," Herta said. "When we won Indy this year, he was the first person that popped into my head. I think because I associate him with that place so much, and he had such a legacy of competing there – a lot of his contemporaries like Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Dario [Franchitti] talk about his performances there – that when the TV cameras came down when we won, I spontaneously said something about Dan right away.
"As we continued to grow as a team, he believed in us before anyone else. He made us better, told us we could win the Indy 500 when on paper we had no business even thinking we could, so I always try and carry that with me. He believed in us, and we try to live up to that every way."
If Wheldon's dramatic last-lap, last-corner Indy 500 win for Herta in 2011 wasn't enough of a thrill ride in the No. 98 Honda, Alexander Rossi continued the tradition by toppling IndyCar's giants last May to capture the 100th Indy 500 in a shocking manner behind the wheel of the newest No. 98 Honda.
"I think he'd be really happy with the success we've had, as long as he wasn't racing against us," Herta said with a laugh. "If he was racing against us, he might not have been as excited, but I know he'd take satisfaction from the role he played in helping us."
Herta has been on an interesting and fulfilling journey since he and Wheldon were teammates at Michael Andretti's team from 2003-06.
He was fired halfway through the 2008 season while driving sports cars for Andretti, moved into team ownership following that event by creating Bryan Herta Autosport and grew BHA to the point where Wheldon, who was out of work after splitting with Panther Racing, placed his faith in Bryan with a one-off drive at the Indy 500.
After their Indy 500 win, and with Danica Patrick set to leave Andretti's team for NASCAR at the end of the year, Wheldon was going to return to drive for Michael and fill her vacant seat in 2012. Taken before it came to fruition, Wheldon was unable to rejoin Andretti, but with changes in his own program, Herta and Andretti were able to put the past behind them and merge for 2016.
In a roundabout way, and in light of Andretti-Herta Autosport's accomplishment at the Indy 500, Herta says there's something comforting in how things have come full circle.
"I guess I didn't really think about it in those terms, but it's true; it started for both of us at Andretti, he was there as a rookie, our relationship started there, and in some ways, it's poetic he was bound for Andretti and we ended up there now and put together another Indy 500 win," he added. "I like the feeling of that, for whatever that's worth. I like how that feels."
Rossi's Indy-winning No. 98 Andretti-Herta Honda is set to join Wheldon's No. 98 BHA Honda in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in the coming weeks.
With two of his cars being prepared for display, Herta is fond of the idea that future generations will be able to see what Wheldon started five years ago for BHA, and what has continued with Rossi and the Andretti-Herta program.
"It's a tremendous source of pride," he said. "Even as time has gone on, guys that worked with us in 2011 have moved to other teams and we all go visit Dan's car in the museum and spend some time with it. It feels like we're spending time with him, almost.
"And it's nice to know we'll have this winning No. 98 next to it; is even better. We worked hard to achieve that goal, and there's a legacy to it that's unlike winning any other race in the world.
"Our grandkids, and great grandkids, and Dan's family will be able to go to the museum and see what their ancestors achieved."
Dan's wife Susie and their sons are his greatest legacy. It's a distant second, but it's also heartwarming to know that five years out, Wheldon's closest friends and teammates continue to honor his memory the right way in the sport he loved with every fiber.
