David Letterman questions his love of racing in wake of Wilson death

David Letterman. IndyCar will continue to kill off its stars if they don't add canopies to their cars. If even Letterman's love for IndyCar is beginning to wane, the sports future may be dire.

David Letterman loves racing. But the recent death of Justin Wilson has him questioning his passion.

The former late-night TV host and co-owner of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan IndyCar team recently gave an interview with the Associated Press, and he seems to be doing a lot of deep reflection.

The AP caught up with Letterman at his Montana ranch, just days after Wilson was killed after being hit by a piece of debris during Sunday's IndyCar race at Pocono.

"Maybe we've reached diminishing returns at making this sport safer," Letterman said.

The list of racing deaths over the last few decades isn't long, but it's not short, either. Wilson, Dan Wheldon, Paul Dana, Dale Earnhardt, Jason Leffler, Kevin Ward Jr. and Ayrton Senna are some of the more notable names.

"It's just like, 'Whoa, is this really the sport that you can embrace entirely?' I don't know. It's a real self-examination," Letterman said.

This season should be a great one for Letterman, in his first stint as a co-owner when he's not hosing "The Late Show." RLL driver Graham Rahal is just 34 points out of the championship lead going into Sunday's double-points finale at Sonoma.

However, Wilson's death appears to have placed a pallor over the paddock; Letterman included.

"I talked to a lot of people about this: Racing is fun, but people are not supposed to get killed," he said. "I am brokenhearted for his family, for his kids, and everybody says, 'Well, this is what the guy wanted to do.' And of course, that's the case.

"But we're not supposed to have people die in the middle of this competition. I think he has two children, and that just breaks my heart, that Dad loves driving race cars."

Wilson's death came after a fluke accident that saw the nose cone of Sage Karam's wrecked car fly down the track and hit him.

"I've done quite a lot of thought, and statistically, I suppose people will tell us racing has never been safer, and maybe that's the case," Letterman told the AP. "And it seems like always enough time goes by between episodes, tragedies like this, where you are lulled into thinking that, 'OK, well, that's not going to happen again.'

"And then it happens again. It just makes you sick to your stomach."

Letterman said in the interview that he's excited for Rahal, but he's still feeling emotional over IndyCar's latest death and that he's having a tough time reconciling the good and bad in racing.

"What other sport do you have these two diametric circumstances: One, the possibility of this kid winning his first championship, and then also in the same week you have a guy who dies. I don't know how to reconcile it. I just don't," he said.

"When you see a race and you see people drive these cars with such precision, what they are able to achieve and what they are able to control, it's like watching ballet. What they are able to do with these high-horsepower automobiles, it's like watching the Blue Angels or something," Letterman said. "That's the thrill of it. So when you see a kid get killed doing this, it's a tap on the shoulder of, 'I don't know. I don' t know if we are supposed to be enjoying this or not.' Not many people are getting killed in volleyball." AutoWeek