Series mourns fallen driver.

The buzz surrounding the start of a new season of racing quickly evaporated at the Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday when, just three minutes into opening practice Paul Dana lost his life in a turn two crash with Ed Carpenter.

Despite the loss of Dana and the injuries sustained by Carpenter, the decision was made to press ahead with the season opening Toyota Indy 300, an event that started with 16 cars and finished with just ten and resulted in defending series champ Dan Wheldon and double Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves running side by side to the finish with Wheldon just fractions ahead.

Wheldon led the tributes to the 30 year-old Dana, who perished after ramming into Carpenter's stationary car at nearly 220mph despite the best efforts of the world-renowned IRL safety team.

"Well, it was a win obviously under very difficult circumstances," Wheldon said. "I think certainly my thoughts and prayers and everybody here, their thoughts are with the Dana family and everybody at Rahal Letterman Racing. It's very difficult to race under circumstances like this. I think everybody in the community and the fans that came out to Homestead-Miami Speedway today should be commended for the effect that they have on the drivers to pull through under very difficult circumstances."

While tributes from every competitor poured in, Felipe Giaffone, who finished eighth for AJ Foyt Enterprises, gave some insight into the mental battles every driver went through before and during the 200-lap race on the 1.5-mile Homestead oval.

"It was hard not to think about what happened with Paul Dana, and I did think about him during the race," said the Brazilian driver. "I do believe when your time is up, that is it. God has a plan for everyone, and there's nothing you can do about it. God bless his family during this terrible time."

"Obviously today, you have to remember a big loss," added Castroneves, who shrugged off his last turn defeat. "All my thoughts are with Paul Dana's family."

Fourth place finisher Dario Franchitti, who lost close friend Greg Moore in a crash at Fontana during the 1999 Champ Car series finale, was still numbed by Dana's death, which resulted in his Rahal-Letterman team withdrawing their other two entries for Danica Patrick and Buddy Rice.

"I'm still in shock about the whole thing," said the Scotsman. "I didn't know Paul very well, but I've been through this before. I just feel for his family. It's such a tragedy."

"It's always very hard when a tragedy like this happens," continued fifth place finisher Scott Dixon, whose would-be teammate for the 2004 season, American Tony Renna, perished in a testing crash at Indianapolis shortly after the conclusion of the 2003 season. "Our thoughts go out to Paul's family and Rahal Letterman Racing. It's been a rough day, and we never want to see anything like that."