Between nearly winning the Indianapolis 500 to narrowly escaping death in a colossal crash, it was a whirlwind year for Redwood alumnus JR Hildebrand.

Hildebrand, who graduated from Redwood in 2006, finished his rookie year in the Indy Racing League [IRL] three weeks ago with a massive crash that left one driver dead, and many more injured and devastated, in the final race of the season.

During the 11th lap of the season finale at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 16, a massive 15-car pileup resulted in the hospitalization of three drivers, including Hildebrand, and the death of English driver Dan Wheldon.

The race was supposed to determine which of the top two contenders, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, would be this season’s champion, but due to the massive amount of car debris strewn across the track, officials ended the race early. Remaining drivers instead did a five-lap tribute to Wheldon.

Hildebrand gained fame after he nearly won the Indianapolis 500 in May, but crashed during the last turn of the race and skidded across the finish line in second place behind Wheldon.

During the Oct. 16 race, Hildebrand crashed after two cars in front of him touched wheels, causing another car to spin and leaving nowhere for Hildebrand to go except into the wreckage.

The nature of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway made it difficult for other drivers to avoid the initial crash. Hildebrand said that at most tracks, the few cars that initially crash would have ended up in the outside wall of the track, taking a few other cars with them at most.

“At most tracks, even the other tracks that are of the same lengths and are of similar characteristics, what ended up happening just wouldn’t have happened,” Hildebrand said. “Because a lot of the other cars around us would have had that little bit of extra room, that little bit of extra time, they probably would have been able to check up and slow down, and it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.”

Hildebrand was taken to an off-site medical center immediately after the race and, after spending the night for observation, he left the next day with a collection of cuts and bruises. Wheldon was airlifted to the hospital and died a few hours after arriving.

Some critics blame the unprecedented crash on certain features of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, especially high-banked turns, that make it an especially fast track.

“We knew the racing was going to be closer together because, as we had seen practice throughout the week, it was easier than at those other tracks to run side by side and very close together,” Hildebrand said.

While emotional for drivers and officials that knew him, Wheldon’s death has also prompted heated discussion over the risks of IndyCar racing and whether adjustments or regulations should be put into place to prevent a repeat of the crash.

“In some sense it was circumstantial, a chain of events that is extremely unlikely to repeat itself in that way again,” Hildebrand said. “At the same time, I think the general outlook from any driver across every sport is that we’re all race car drivers and if you put us in a race car, we’re going to try to win. You can’t tell us to be careful, you can’t tell us to be safe, because that is always going to be second to competing at a high level.”

Hildebrand said his feelings remain mixed concerning the results of the Indianapolis 500, a race Wheldon won after Hildebrand was one turn away from being the ninth rookie in IRL history to win.

“Despite how everything transpired after the Indy 500, it ended up being a really positive thing about how we all as a team handled the situation. It’s still a race that we could have won, had things been a little bit different,” Hildebrand said. “Does it make things rest a little bit easier knowing that [Wheldon] had, in some sense, a fantastic final hurrah at the place that he maybe loved more than anybody else? Yes, that does definitely settle in a little bit.”

After what Hildebrand described as some big ups and downs, his rookie year wasn’t what he had expected.

“I went through enough that I didn’t feel like much of a rookie by the time we got to the end of it,” Hildebrand said. “Having gotten through all of that and learned from it, I feel very prepared and excited for getting to next year, starting again, putting those things I learned this year into perspective, and hopefully making good use of them next season.”