Daniel Clive Wheldon (born 22 June 1978 in Emberton, near Olney, Buckinghamshire, England) is an English auto racing driver. The 2005 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series champion and Indy 500 winner, Wheldon is nicknamed "Difficult Dan" in the IRL pit lane for his choleric temperament . He currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Beginnings

Taking up karting at the age of four with funding from his father, Wheldon progressed through the junior ranks of motor racing during his school years. Attending Bedford School until he completed his GCSEs at age 16, he frequently took time off to race. During his early career in open wheel racing, he developed a rivalry with Jenson Button before ultimately leaving the United Kingdom to race in America. The reasoning behind the move was that the level of investment needed to fund his racing career in the UK wasn't able to be provided by his family. Moving to the United States in 1999, he spent several years in lower open-wheeled circuits like the U.S. F2000 Championship Series, the Toyota Atlantic series and the Indy Lights series.

IRL IndyCar Series

In 2002, Wheldon moved up to the IRL IndyCar Series for two events, with Panther Racing as teammate to Sam Hornish, Jr.. The following year Wheldon joined Andretti Green Racing, taking the spot of Michael Andretti following his retirement, and collected league Rookie of the Year honours. In 2004, he won his first IRL race at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, ultimately finishing as runner-up to teammate Tony Kanaan in the championship with three wins.

He won the 2005 Indianapolis 500 as well as that season's IndyCar Series championship. His six victories in 2005 also broke the record for most victories in one season (under IRL sanction), previously held by Sam Hornish, Jr. with 5. His win at Indy was the first for an Englishman since Graham Hill's triumph in 1966. In November 2005, it was announced that he would be driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar Series in 2006. Shortly after his first test with Ganassi, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance sports car race with Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Ganassi NASCAR driver Casey Mears.

He began the IndyCar season by beating Hélio Castroneves by 0.0147 seconds at a sombre Homestead-Miami due to the earlier death of Paul Dana in a practice session. Wheldon retired at St. Petersburg thanks to contact with Sam Hornish, Jr. during a caution period. At the end of the 2006 IndyCar season, Wheldon and Hornish were tied for the lead with each driver having 475 points. In the event of a tie, the driver with the most wins for that particular season is declared the champion. Hornish had four wins for the 2006 season, to Wheldon's two; therefore Hornish was declared the 2006 IndyCar champion.

During the close season he was offered a place in the BMW Sauber Formula One team, but declined on discovering he would not be assured a regular drive. "I do want to race in F1. When my contract expires with Chip, I’ll take a serious look at Formula One".

Commenting in 2007 on the perception of him as 'difficult', Wheldon said "I put everything into my racing, and I expect the same back. If I see people who aren't giving it I'm not afraid to say so, but that sometimes comes out a little brash. That could be improved a little bit.

On 22 June 2008, his 30th birthday, he took his 15th career victory in the IndyCar Series after winning the 2008 Iowa Corn Indy 250 over Hideki Mutoh and Marco Andretti. He donated his winnings to help the victims of the recent tornadoes and flooding which had occurred in Iowa.

Wheldon was released from his drive at Ganassi on 2 September 2008. He was replaced by Dario Franchitti; "I have enjoyed these last three seasons with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, but will be moving on to pursue a very exciting opportunity for 2009," Wheldon said.It would later turn out to be a return to former team Panther Racing. Wheldon drove the Panther car to a second place finish in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, the second Indy 500 runner-up finish in a row for the team.

Personal life

He and his wife Susie have a son, Sebastian, who was born on February 1, 2009. He lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Motorsports career results

American Open-Wheel

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IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2002	Panther	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI 10	TX2 15					36th	35
2003	Andretti Green	HMS	PHX	MOT 7	INDY Ret	TXS Ret	PPIR Ret	RIR 8	KAN Ret	NSH 4	MIS Ret	STL 5	KTY 8	NZR 7	CHI 4	FON 4	TX2 3				11th	312
2004	Andretti Green	HMS 3	PHX 3	MOT 1	INDY 3	TXS Ret	RIR 1	KAN 9	NSH 13	MIL Ret	MIS 3	KTY 3	PPIR 3	NZR 1	CHI 4	FON 3	TX2 3				2nd	533
2005	Andretti Green	HMS 1	PHX 6	STP 1	MOT 1	INDY 1	TXS6	RIR 5	KAN 2	NSH Ret	MIL 5	MIS 2	KTY 3	PPIR 1	SNM Ret	CHI 1	WGL 5	FON 6			1st	618
2006	Ganassi	HMS 1	STP Ret	MOT 2	INDY 4	WGL Ret	TXS 3	RIR 9	KAN 2	NSH 2	MIL 8	MIS 3	KTY 4	SNM 6	CHI 1						2nda	475
2007	Ganassi	HMS 1	STP 9	MOT 2	KAN 1	INDY Ret	MIL 3	TXS Ret	IOW 11	RIR 3	WGL 7	NSH 8	MDO 10	MIS Ret	KTY Ret	SNM 7	DET 3	CHI Ret			4th	466
2008	Ganassi	HMS 3	STP 12	MOT1 4	LBH1 DNP	KAN 1	INDY 12	MIL 4	TXS 4	IOW 1	RIR 4	WGL Ret	NSH 2	MDO 17	EDM 7	KTY 5	SNM 4	DET 20	CHI 6	SRF2 11	4th	492
2009	Panther	STP Ret	LBH 5	KAN 10	INDY 2	MIL 10	TXS 7	IOW 4	RIR 10	WGL 10	TOR 14	EDM 15	KTY 11	MDO 16	SNM 12	CHI Ret	MOT 8	HMS Ret			10th	354

^a Wheldon lost the title on the tiebreaker - he won only two races compared to Sam Hornish, Jr.'s four after the two tied on 475 points

¹ Run on same day

² Non-points race

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)**	Top 10s (Non-podium)***	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
8	4	113	5	16	23	43	1 (2005)	1 (2005)

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2003	Dallara	Honda	5th	19th	Andretti Green
2004	Dallara	Honda	2nd	3rd	Andretti Green
2005	Dallara	Honda	16th	1st	Andretti Green
2006	Dallara	Honda	3rd	4th	Ganassi
2007	Dallara	Honda	6th	22nd	Ganassi
2008	Dallara	Honda	2nd	12th	Ganassi
2009	Dallara	Honda	18th	2nd	Panther

References

1. Dan Wheldon Welcomes a Son Celebrity Baby Blog, February 5, 2009

External links

• Official Site
• IndyCar Profile
• Audio Interview with Dan Wheldon Dan Wheldon talks about his karting days