Lap 77 and Honoring Dan Wheldon

As most of us know, NASCAR will be racing at Las Vegas this coming weekend. I thought that given it is the first major event to take place at LVMS since the death of Dan Wheldon on Oct. 16 that it would be a perfect opportunity for the racing community to honor him in some way.

I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter mentioning that perhaps we should all post a tweet containing the #77 hashtag on Lap 77, which is a great idea. But I would like it to go even further.

Thinking back to 2001, I remember how the Fox broadcasters would go silent during Lap 3 of every race the rest of the season in memory of Dale Earnhardt. With that in mind, I think it would be fitting for them to do the same thing on Lap 77 of Sunday’s race to recognize Dan.

One thing I was very impressed with NASCAR in the aftermath of that tragedy is the way they responded. Despite the fact that Dan was a member of a “competing” series, they honored him as one of their own, which was very touching. It was also a wonderful thing to see so many of them later contribute items to Graham Rahal’s online auction.

I honestly think that the NASCAR community, and more specifically the Fox network, would be open to such a request from fans of Dan’s and of IndyCar.

I know that many of us follow drivers from the NASCAR series and the Fox broadcast team, and maybe it can start there. Tweet it to your followers and to the IndyCar/NASCAR personalities you follow, and ask them to do the same. And while you are at it, tweet to them the idea of doing the same on Lap 98 of the Indy 500 in May.

I think it would be a really, really cool thing and would be a great tribute to Dan and what he contributed to not just the IndyCar series, but the entire racing community. 

Edit: This is officially a campaign, and I now have a Facebook group! http://www.facebook.com/groups/298270910240838/