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.

Neither IRL nor team officials had any explanation for Dana’s failure to slow down for several seconds after the yellow lights came on around the track.

“That’s just the first time of the weekend that we got all 20 cars on the track at the same time,” said IRL president Brian Barnhart. “Ed had his problem in turn two initially. The yellow lights were called immediately and all systems functioned properly. It’s just a busy time out there, with a lot of cars and a lot of traffic.”

Rahal said he knew of no problem with communications.

“The spotter made clear the incident,” Rahal said. “From what I could see, there was a car on the outside. Paul was just passing or had just passed, but I think it would be conjecture and probably very irresponsible for me to try to dissect as to why what happened, happened. But there was no problem with communication.”

J. Pat Carter / AP IRL race fan Tim Mincey from West Palm Beach, Fla., displays a sign honoring Paul Dana.

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.

Several drivers dedicated their race to Dana, but the fatality didn’t slow them down a bit. The crowd was on its feet for the final 20 laps and the spectacular finish. The winning margin of 0.0147-seconds was the ninth closest finish in league history, and there were no serious accidents in the race.

Wheldon has now won two straight races for his new team, Chip Ganassi Racing. He also combined with new IRL teammate Scott Dixon and Ganassi NASCAR driver Casey Mears to win the Daytona 24-hour sports car endurance race.

“It’s difficult to race under such circumstances,” Wheldon said. “It’s a job and it can be pretty vicious at times. But there can be a lot of highs as well.”

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, Fla. 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. Scott Brayton also died in a crash during practice for the 1996 Indy 500.

The last NASCAR driver killed was Dale Earnhardt in February 2001, the last driver to die in Formula One was Ayrton Senna in May 1994, and the last driver killed in the Champ Car World Series was Greg Moore in 1999.

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.