HOMESTEAD, FL — Paul Dana was an up-and-coming rookie driver living his dream, a former motorsports journalist who was hours away Sunday from beginning his most promising season yet.

Then, before the green flag flew, something went terribly, inexplicably wrong.

While streaking around the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval during a warmup session, Dana failed to notice that another car had spun to a stop, slamming into it at close to 200 mph. Two hours after his shattered car came to a rest, the 30-year-old Dana was pronounced dead at a hospital.

“Obviously, this is a very black day for us,” team owner Bobby Rahal said. “This is a great tragedy.”

Dana believed he had finally gotten his big break in the months before the season-opening IRL IndyCar Series race here. After a string of modest successes rising through racing’s ranks, he had secured a ride with the elite Rahal Letterman Racing – the same team that fields IRL phenom Danica Patrick and Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice.

Teammates Danica Patrick and Rice did not run Sunday, but the race went on as planned, with defending Indy 500 and IRL points champion Dan Wheldon beating Helio Castroneves by a nose cone.

If the drivers had any jitters going into the race, it didn’t show by the end – Wheldon and Castroneves carried off a side-by-side, tire-bumping duel in the final laps en route to the thrilling finish.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Dana family and all of Rahal Letterman racing,” said Wheldon, who ran the race with Dana’s No. 17 on his side pod. “It’s a very, very sad day. I think hopefully we put on a good race.”

Two days before his death — the first in the IRL in three years — Dana was strolling through the paddock, shaking hands and signing autographs.

“I can’t wait to get started because I want to prove to everyone that I can do the job,” Dana told a longtime acquaintance. “I’m feeling good and I know I can race with these guys. And now I’ve got great equipment.”

Dana’s wife, Tonya, was in Indianapolis, where the couple lived, and was notified of her husband’s death while attending a church service.

Dana, who began his career in Formula Fords and worked his way up through the ranks, was known as a strong self promoter. He got his new ride by bringing the Ethanol sponsorship to the Rahal Letterman team over the winter. Dana’s previous three IRL races with Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing came at the start of the 2005 season. He finished a season-best 10th at Homestead, but his year ended in May when he sustained a broken back while practicing for the Indianapolis 500.

The Rahal Letterman team withdrew Patrick and Rice from the Toyota Indy 300, and a moment of silence was observed before the start of the 300-mile race. Otherwise, the prerace ceremonies, including the introduction of the remaining 17 drivers, went according to schedule.

Rahal, who co-owns the team with television talk show host David Letterman, said the plan was to field cars for Patrick and Rice at next Sunday’s race in St. Petersburg, FL. He said any future plans for the No. 17 entry, the car driven by Dana, “are unclear at this time.”

“Paul Dana’s passing is a terrible tragedy and I want to express my condolences and sympathies to his family and friends,” Letterman said in a statement. “I did not know Paul personally, but we were all proud to have him on our team and are deeply saddened by his tragic passing at such a young age.”

Dana is the first IRL driver killed since Tony Renna died in a crash during testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October 2003. The last NASCAR driver killed was Dale Earnhardt in February 2001, and the last driver to die in Formula One was Ayrton Senna in May 1994.

It is the third racing death at the Homestead track — John Nemechek was killed in a NASCAR truck race in February 1997 and Jeff Clinton died in a Grand Am sports car event at the track in March 2002.

The IRL also had a tragedy in May 1999 when a wheel from a car sailed into the grandstand at what was then Charlotte Motor Speedway, killing three spectators and injuring eight others.

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