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Today the Rahal-Letterman Racing team suffered a serious blow when the #17 Ethanol car was in a pre-race warmup accident and driver and ethanol champion Paul Dana died from the injuries he suffered.
“It is a black day for us, and on behalf of Rahal Letterman Racing, our sponsors and associates, our prayers and sympathy go out to the entire Dana family,”
said team co-owner Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner.
“This is a great tragedy. As a result, and in honor of Paul, we will not run the team’s No. 15 (with driver Buddy Rice, the 2004 Indy 500 winner) and No. 16 (with driver Danica Patrick, the 2005 Indy 500 and IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year) cars in today’s event.”
“Paul was a very special guy,” said David Vander Griend, president and CEO of ICM, a primary sponsor on the Team Ethanol car. “He demonstrated his belief in what ethanol can do for all of America through his racing. He helped us with so many things in bringing ethanol to the IndyCar Series. He will be missed tremendously. Our thoughts are with his family today.”
Domestic Fuel sponsor and Ethanol Car sponsor, Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has released a statement. You can read the full release from EPIC here (Word doc).
I also spoke with EPIC Executive Director, Tom Slunecka a few minutes ago. He is obviously still in shock over the tragedy after spending some time with Paul during the last couple days and being onsite when the accident occurred. On behalf of the EPIC staff, board and members, Tom offers his condolences to the Dana family, his friends and teammates. You can listen to Tom’s statement here: 
EPIC Statement (1 min MP3)
Read more on 
March 26th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
[...] Today I was reminded how fleeting life can be. Indy race car driver Paul Dana died from injuries he received in a pre-race warmup before the Toyota Indy 300 in Homestead, FL. He died before the race and they still ran the race. I find that pretty insensitive to say the least. [...]
April 3rd, 2006 at 6:43 pm
[...] The pain is still too fresh for the Paul Dana’s friends in the ethanol industry to even start talking about it, but the questions are being asked, and the Wichita Business Journal got some answers from Team Ethanol sponsors ICM and EPIC. “Absolutely we’ll be back,” ICM President and CEO Dave Vander Griend says. “It’s a tragic, tragic loss, a very tough one for me personally. But the best thing we can do for Paul’s legacy is to continue on, and we’ll do that.” Plans for the ethanol racing team are on hold this week out of respect for Dana’s memory, says Tom Slunecka, EPIC executive director. But keeping Dana’s drive alive to promote ethanol awareness will take center stage later, he says. “I think we owe it to him to prove his legacy true,” Slunecka says. “We owe it to him to march on in behalf of him, in behalf of the fervor he had for both ethanol and racing. Ethanol was far more than a sponsor to Paul.” Read more on Ethanol / EPIC [...]