Paul Tracy gets real about the effect of Dan Wheldon's tragic death on his IndyCar career

IndyCar champion Paul Tracy has disclosed how his career came to an anticlimactic end after Dan Wheldon's tragic death. The two-time Indy 500 winner suffered a fatal crash during the 2011 IndyCar season finale at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 16.

He was part of a 15-car wreck, including Tracy, and the worst affected. His No. 77 Sam Schmidt Motorsports Honda flew over 325 feet before crashing cockpit-first into the catch-fence. He succumbed to "unsurvivable injuries" in the hospital later that day.

The 2011 season was Paul Tracy's fourth part-time season in IndyCar, having recorded his final full-time season with Forsythe Championship Racing in 2007. He had won the 2003 championship with the same team. His final career race was the 2011 season finale where Wheldon's fatal crash took place.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Tracy explained how his parents and wife were pressuring him to retire from IndyCar. Dan Wheldon's crash-induced death was the pivotal moment that caused him to hang up his boots.

"My last Indy car race was when Dan Wheldon died [in 2011]. I ended my career right after that with great pressure from my parents and my wife at the time. I wasn't getting paid a lot to drive the cars anymore, wasn't in a competitive car and was only a part-time driver. At Las Vegas, when Dan got killed, I was caught up in that accident, had a big crash myself. Having a 25-year career end like that was hard. I had no farewell tour or anything. It all just fizzled out," the 56-year-old said.

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When Paul Tracy spoke about his conversation with fellow IndyCar drivers just after Dan Wheldon's accident

Paul Tracy at the Honda Indy Edmonton - Source: Getty

A couple of days after Dan Wheldon's death, Paul Tracy revealed the conversation he had with his fellow IndyCar drivers at the Las Vegas circuit after the crash, who thought Wheldon's vitals were stable. He was the one who saw the 2005 IndyCar champ getting wheeled away to the hospital and had to break the bad news to them.

"After the accident, I was in the (infield) hospital when they wheeled Dan in. I could see it was bad. Real bad. I went and talked with Dario (Franchitti), Tony Kanaan and Justin Wilson, and they were like, `We heard he’s stable and his vitals are good.’

I told them, `Guys, that’s not what I just saw.’ Ten minutes later, they came in and told us he had passed," Tracy said via Godfather Motorsports.

Wheldon was honored at F1's Grand Prix of India in late October of 2011. Race winner Jenson Button, the late IndyCar champ's compatriot, dedicated the victory to him.