Racers, friends remember Dan Wheldon

"All of us here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway are deeply saddened by the death of Dan Wheldon. He was a tremendous racecar driver and a great representative for IndyCar racing. Our prayers are with Dan's family, as well as the officials and sponsors of IndyCar."

-- CHRIS POWELL, Las Vegas Motor Speedway president

"Dan Wheldon was a tremendous competitor, a great racer and an even better person. It was an honor to have him be a part of our team. All of us at Sam Schmidt Motorsports are deeply saddened by his passing. On behalf of everyone at Sam Schmidt Motorsports, our prayers go out to all of his family, especially his wife, Susie, and their two children."

-- SAM SCHMIDT, team for which Wheldon was driving in Sunday's race

"What can you say? We're going to miss him. Everybody in IndyCar died a little today."

-- CHIP GANASSI, Wheldon's former car owner

"We put so much pressure on ourselves to win races and championships, and that's what we love to do, what we live for. Days like today, it doesn't really matter. I lost, we lost, a good friend. Everybody in IndyCar considered Dan a friend. ... Dan was one of those special, special people, from when he first showed up at IndyCar."

-- DARIO FRANCHITTI, Wheldon's former teammate and 2011 season champion

"I saw two cars touch each other up in front of me, and then I tried to slow down, couldn't slow down. Then Dan's car, from what I saw in the videos, came over my back wheel and over top of me. Just a horrendous accident."

-- PAUL TRACY, IndyCar driver and former Las Vegas resident

"It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible. It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell the smoke, you could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered."

-- DANICA PATRICK, who was racing in her final IndyCar event

"I've never seen anything like it. The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from 'Terminator' or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it, and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt, because there's just stuff everywhere. Crazy."

-- RYAN BRISCOE, IndyCar racer

"We have to take care of each other. We are playing with lives here. We need to give each other room. As a senior member, I am going to get Dario (Franchitti) and the guys together, and we need to tell the guys to use their heads."

-- TONY KANAAN, race pole-sitter