Dan Wheldon may have been proud of his new Polaroid look at the start of the Bombardier Learjet 550k weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, but was unable to keep his car pristine for long, after a heavy impact during Friday practice.
The Briton's #10 Chip Ganassi-run Dallara speared into the Turn Four SAFER Barrier after appearing to suffer a mechanical problem, and slid along and across the track before hitting the grass infield and being flipped onto its rollhoop. The car then skidded, upside-down, for some distance before coming to rest.
The Delphi Safety Team were quickly on the scene, although Wheldon was able to extricate himself from the car once it had been righted, and complained of little more than a sore ankle. X-rays at the circuit's medical centre showed nothing worse than heavy bruising, and the 2005 series champion was able to resume his weekend in the spare car for qualifying.
"That was probably the biggest hit I've had, and my right foot really hit the side of the tub very hard," Wheldon told
indycar.com, "The first part of it hurt the most, as I wasn't expecting it.
"I think, unfortunately, we had a failure - it wasn't through preparation of the team. The team always does an excellent job. It was probably one of those things. It wasn't even necessarily a bump. Right before that point, something just broke and it shot me straight [into the wall]."
The team started work almost immediately on preparing the spare car for Wheldon to qualify, as well as readying the sister car of points leader Scott Dixon. The Kiwi went on to take pole, while a sore Wheldon had to make do with eleventh.
To see footage of Wheldon's accident at Texas Motor Speedway CLICK HERE
![Dan Wheldon - Target Chip Ganassi Racing [pic credit: IRL/Jones]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/443263.jpg)
