Heartwarming / IndyCar

• Many years ago, Tony Kanaan gave a good luck charm to an ill girl about to have surgery. In 2013, the now grown and fully recovered girl mailed it back to him, telling him that he needed the luck now and take it to win the Indy 500. He won that year, and when asked about it, pulled the good luck charm out that he had kept in his pocket the entire race.
• Alex Zanardi's entire career after his double amputation in 2001. Returned to racing, won multiple races in touring cars, then won the New York City Marathon and three Paralympic medals, including two golds, in handcycling. The handcycling events were held at the famous Brands Hatch race course, to make it even more special. To go full circle with Kanaan's long-coming Indy win, during a post-race interview, Zanardi said that he and TK had a conversation before the race about how if Alex could win the golds, there was no way that Tony couldn't win the 500.
  • And in 2014, Alex went on to race in the Blancpain Sprint Series-the 2nd fastest production-based series on the planet as of 2019.
• Max Chilton took his talents to Indy Lights from Formula One after being displaced from his ride at Marussia, where he was teamed with Jules Bianchi until the latter's tragic crash at Suzuka, which left Bianchi in a coma until his death on July 17, 2015. The weekend of Bianchi's death, Chilton won the pole for the Indy Lights race at Iowa Speedway, and then the race itself, dedicating them to Bianchi and his family. Even sweeter, Chilton added in an interview after qualifying, "I know if (Jules) was here today, he would have been on pole as well." Quite a praising statement to an old friend.
• If you're looking for a legacy to the late Justin Wilson's career: While being alive, he decreed that organs would be donated after his death. Tragically he'd die due to injuries sustained at the 2015 Pocono 500, but he made true of his promise nonetheless and his organs were donated to six (!) people. For this, he truly deserves the attribute "the late great"!
  • After Wilson's death, the entire motorsports community rallied around his family. All the drivers at the next race- the season finale at Sonoma-agreed to donate their helmets to a charity auction for Wilson's children. Drivers and teams from other racing series, including reigning F1 champion Lewis Hamilton donated his firesuit. Fans made donations to a fund for Wilson's children. By time the auction closed, $637,067 had been raised for Wilson's children.
• After the crash that killed Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas in 2011, officials red-flagged the race. Once the drivers were notified Wheldon had not survived his injuries, they agreed to abandon the race. 19 of the 20 cars that were still functional (the #98 car that Wheldon had driven to victory at Indy just a few months earlier was parked out of respect) lined up in the traditional 3-wide Indy 500 starting formation and performed a 5-lap salute at formation speed while the public address system played "Danny Boy" and "Amazing Grace" and the scoring pylon was blanked except for the #77 that Wheldon had been driving.
  Marty Reid: Many people ask me why I always sign off "'til we meet again". Because "Goodbye" is always so final. Goodbye, Dan Wheldon.
• For a delayed example; in 2023 Gordon Johncock - a two-time Indianapolis 500 champion in 1973 and 1982 - was given the opportunity to be granted a victory banquet and celebration denied him 50 years earlier following the tragedy-marred 1973 Indianapolis 500 (which saw several drivers seriously injured in crashes, one driver - Art Pollard - being killed in a practice crash and after the race was delayed by two days by rain a crash that saw driver Swede Savage^note who initially was in stable condition before dying 33 days later and pit crew member Armando Teran lose their lives (Savage from injuries in a crash; Teran being struck by a safety vehicle en route to Savage's burning car).