There’s a stillness over the IndyCar community today in the wake of Robert Wickens’ horrifying crash at Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway. He’s alive, but has suffered two broken legs, a broken arm, and maybe a spinal injury as well. In times like this, it is easy to see the “IndyCar family” cliché come alive and not be found wanting.

Turn 2 catch fence undergoing repairs after Robert Wickens’ crash.

Pocono is one of my favorite tracks and though I’ve never attended a race there I’ve watched many 500-mile races at the Tricky Triangle. The track’s configuration is iconic, paying tribute to three famous American tracks. Turn 1 mimics Trenton, turn 2 is a copy-paste of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and turn 3 calls to mind the Milwaukee Mile. I love Pocono’s self-proclaimed pride of being a tri-oval. I find myself yelling “What Turn 4?!” whenever a driver pulls out a run off of 3 onto the front stretch.

Just last week, I was watching recent races at Pocono to psych myself up for Sunday’s race. I couldn’t resist watching last year’s race when Will Power made up more than 35 seconds in one stint to make his final pit stop and come out in the lead after being a lap down. To date, I think the 2017 ABC Supply 500 is one of the best IndyCar races I’ve seen.

I also watched the 2015 race — the last time that tragedy struck the Tricky Triangle.

I obviously had heard that Justin Wilson had died after a freak accident there involving debris from Sage Karem’s car, but I had never watched that race. Like Texas in 2017, Pocono in 2015 was a war of attrition. A record number of yellows, drama involving Tristan Vautier, and the general jaw dropping horror of open-wheel oval racing at 220 mph. Justin Wilson was a beloved member of the IndyCar paddock and his death shocked our community. Robin Miller’s tribute to Justin before the 2015 season finale at Sonoma will bring you to tears and remind you just how tragic any death can be.

Tragedy and injury are close to mind this week. If Robert Wickens’ wreck weren’t horrific enough, NBCSN showed the exact same camera shot of the emergency helicopter warming up for take off that they did in 2015 for Justin Wilson’s exit from the track. In that moment, my stomach pitted. And while it seems now that Robbie will live to race another day, we owe it to him, to Justin, to Dan Wheldon, and to all who have met their end on the tracks of the IndyCar Series to reflect more deeply on why we are fans of this sport at all and what lessons it can teach us.

Chaos and Order. We are all familiar with chaos and order in our own lives. Too much order and we become rigid, uncompromising, or bored. To much chaos and we can’t find a stable foundation upon which to build our happiness and quest for meaning. A popular Canadian psychologist and intellectual, Jordan Peterson, argues that human beings are the creatures that mediate between chaos and order. We are to have one foot in chaos and one foot in order, he says. Doing so gives us stability, but prevents us from becoming too fragile in the self-created safe space of our minds.

For me, IndyCar is an outlet and a release. I can bring both my frustrations and satisfactions from the week prior and blow off steam while enjoying the raw power of a V6, turbocharged engine. More philosophically, I enjoy watching IndyCar because it displays the amazing talent of professional drivers right on the edge of their skill — despite years of practice and experience, one gust of wind or one bump of the track can send a driver into the wall. Each race is a confrontation between chaos (the gust of wind, bump in the track) and order (a driver’s lifetime of honed skills and experience). A pass wouldn’t be breathtaking if there weren’t risk involved and every confrontation of order and chaos involves risk.

Nearly every year, there is a serious incident on the racetrack. Last year it was Bourdais’ terrifying wreck in qualifying for the Indy 500 and Dixon’s wild ride on race day. And it was the 8-car pileup at Texas. Despite all of this, the drivers still strapped into the cars in 2018. And even on Sunday, after a two-hour red flag to repair the catch fence, the drivers got back into the cars and finished the 500-mile race.

I believe that the tenacity, daring, and courage of IndyCar drivers are qualities that we would do well to emulate. Of course, we already know that, or else we wouldn’t keep watching a sport that can break bones and take lives. Each of us, every day, faces some challenge or hardship. Some days, it’s just a slight brush with the wall, other days, it’s a fiery encounter with the catch fence.

No matter what our state in life, we all experience adversity, tragedy, and malevolence. IndyCar teaches us two things about these hardships.

Firstly, we have a responsibility to keep the suffering of those around us in the front of our minds. In every driver interview on Sunday, we heard some riff on “above all else our thoughts and prayers are with Robbie and his family.” We too have people in our lives who have been shredded in the catch fence and we would do well to give them our first thoughts and prayers of the day.

Secondly, just like the drivers who got back into their cars and braved the final 190 laps off the Pocono 500, we too need courage in spite of fear. Whether it’s us who is suffering or someone we love, the right response to tragedy is to keep up the good fight. It’s not that we cannot be afraid, in fact, without fear our continuing on would not be courageous. It’s exactly because we know that tragedy can strike again that our continuance is laudable. Let us then continue to brave the sufferings of the world, to not be discouraged, and never give up.

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