Wheldon's a contrast in styles
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Dan Wheldon enjoys playing a stylish, charismatic race car driver around the garage. On the track, he prefers being the tough guy.
The split personalities seem a perfect mix for Wheldon.
In less than four years, he has gone from Indy car prospect to Indianapolis 500 champion and now to one of the Indy Racing League's most feared drivers.
"I think it was just Dan's will that got him to the front there," team owner Chip Ganassi said of Wheldon's season-opening win at Homestead. "Without his will, that would never have happened."
Considered one of the IRL's most polite guys, Wheldon has demonstrated his racing mettle in different ways.
Last year, he won at Japan by making a smart fuel calculation late. When he started 16th at Indy, he methodically moved through the pack to win. At Chicago, Wheldon's final burst helped him hold off two-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves by 0.0133 seconds.
For Wheldon, a 27-year-old Englishman with a pretty-boy image, it's become a theme.
Dominated IRL in 2005
He dominated the series championship last year, defeating teammate and 2004 IRL champion Tony Kanaan by 80 points. He won an IRL-record six races, set another series record with three straight wins and earned the most prestigious title on the circuit when he put car owner Michael Andretti in Indianapolis' Victory Lane for the first time.
Wheldon also won three times for Andretti Green Racing in 2004, earning a runner-up finish to Kanaan in the points. In 2003, he was the league's rookie of the year.
Now, after moving to Target Chip Ganassi, the expectations are higher than ever.
There has been talk that Wheldon could be headed to Formula One, and he acknowledged last summer that teams from both NASCAR and F1 were interested.
Instead, he signed with Ganassi's team and now hopes to join Al Unser and Castroneves as the only drivers since 1971 to win back-to-back Indy 500s. Unser won in 1970-71, Castroneves in 2001-02.
If Wheldon duplicates that feat this year, he won't have to overcome the same obstacles he did last year. He's consistently been among the fastest drivers all month and proved it again in this past weekend's qualifying. His four-lap average of 227.338 mph was third best, putting him on the outside of the front row.
Confidence is evident
More important is that Wheldon believes he can win again on the historic 2.5-mile oval.
"I'm going to do everything in my power to make that happen," he said. "Having won it, I think it's given me a lot more confidence perhaps not just at the racetrack, but I think everywhere as a person, too."
Wheldon also has a knack for saying and doing all the right things on and off the track. He frequently thanks his crew, teammate Scott Dixon, Ganassi and even former teammates.
So when he was thinking about switching to Ganassi's team for this year, there was no way Wheldon would engage in the bad-mouthing that sometimes exists in motorsports. Instead, he said he was seeking a new challenge -- to prove to the racing world that it wasn't merely Andretti's well-financed operation that made him a winner.
He rarely criticizes competitors or stirs controversy publicly, and with his teenager-like smile and tousled hair, Wheldon looks like the definition of genial.
Put him on the track, though, and the demeanor changes. He becomes intense, focused and unflappable.
"You need that mental toughness because there are a lot of head games that go on," said Cary Agajanian, a longtime car owner and son of former Indy driver J.C. Agajanian. "I think that makes you a great race driver, too, if you never lose your cool and keep your mind focused."
A cover boy
His good nature and good looks have another attraction to fans.
As the defending points champ, Wheldon earned the title of IRL cover boy on this year's media guide, and posters of him with Danica Patrick have been given away all month in Indianapolis.
But unlike other athletes who attempted to build their reputations around their personalities, Wheldon has no such inclination. He'd rather win races, titles and fans, and a second straight win at Indy would put Wheldon in elite company.
To Wheldon that's the image he wants to earn.
"We believe we have the cars that can compete for race wins, and, certainly, I think the first three races proved that," he said. "This is one race I'm certainly very passionate about."
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