IRL racing driver Robby McGehee is a distant cousin of mine, and he's featured in a piece seen occasionally this weekend on Fox News about how he was the first racing driver to hit the new safer wall at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway while trying to qualify for the Indy 500.
Robby was the Indy's Rookie of the Year in 1999, and finished second by only a whisker in one of the most exciting auto race finishes in history two years ago in Texas. I was watching that race, but ESPN lost the feed with just a few laps to go, so I had to find out about the finish after the fact.
In Robby's Indy crash this month he suffered fractures to his upper spine and left leg, but was cleared to drive just over a week later. Unfortunately he didn't qualify for the race -- but the new wall at Indy may have saved his life. Not too shabby.
