Dario tells of grief at pal’s track death

IndyCar racer Dario Franchitti has spoken of his grief after losing friend Dan Wheldon in last week’s Las Vegas pile up.

The Bathgate-born driver lost his best friend, Greg Moore, in the sport’s 1999 season finale and is now grappling with yet another loss.

He said: “It’s tough. It’s a horrible part of the sport, and it’s a horrible part of life.

When you see Dan’s family, see Susie [his wife] and the boys, you realise ‘Whoa’.

“That’s the tough part, really. The racing part, you can deal with that. We didn’t want to lose a friend. You’d give anything to have him back here.”

Franchitti, 38, was driving in the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s big oval, and praised the decision to cancel the race and close with a five-lap tribute to Wheldon. “Most of us couldn’t drive because of the tears. We couldn’t see where we were going,” he said.

But he said he still planned to go on driving.