Greg Moore (racing Driver) - Death

Death

On October 31, the 1999 Marlboro 500 at the Auto Club Speedway (then California Speedway) of Southern California was the final race of the CART FedEx Championship Series season, and was due to be Moore's final race with the Player's Forsythe racing team because of the deal with Penske Racing that would take effect in 2000. It was also a title-deciding race between Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti.

During the weekend before the race, Greg was knocked off his motor scooter by a paddock vehicle and injured his right hand. Unsure that Greg would be able to race, Player's-Forsythe hired Roberto Moreno as an emergency backup driver. After a medical consultation, and an in-car test, he was allowed to race using a hand brace, starting from the back of the grid because his team had missed qualifying.

Following an early race restart, on lap nine of the race, Moore lost control of his car in the exit of turn 2 and spun into the infield grass at more than 200 mph. His car hit an access road and was tripped over to strike the infield concrete wall sideways with the top of the car directly facing the wall at unabated speed. Moore was critically injured in the crash and was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The race continued and Adrian Fernandez won. At the pronouncement of Moore's death, the Auto Club Speedway ordered all track flags at half staff. Also, CART ordered that there would be no victory celebrations for either the race, or the newly-decided championship. Player's Forsythe racing ordered their other driver, Patrick Carpentier, into the pits and retired Patrick's car mid-race (a traditional act by race teams with more than one car when one of their drivers dies). All other drivers were unaware of Greg's death until the end of the race. At the request of Greg's father, Ric Moore, the CART end-of-season awards banquet continued as scheduled on the following night, although its format was changed out of respect for the families of Greg Moore and Gonzalo Rodríguez, another CART driver who was killed in a crash earlier in the season at Laguna Seca. Almost 6 laps before Moore's ill-fated lap, driver Richie Hearn had crashed in exactly the same location. The skidmark pattern was nearly identical, both drivers having struck the inside wall. Hearn walked away, and Moore did not. Moreover, a strong northerly wind was blowing that day, creating a cross wind down the backstretch where both incidents occurred.