Sometimes you find out more about someone in death than you ever knew about them in life.

Most everyone in racing knew Dan Wheldon was a good driver and a really good guy. Loved his family dearly, just as they loved him back.

What most probably didn't know was that he was a neat freak who carefully lined up his many shoes in the closet. Or that he was determined never to give a bad interview. Or that he would say "It's mega, man!" when he did something like win the Indianapolis 500 - which he did twice.

There were a lot of stories told about Wheldon this weekend in Florida at his funeral and later at a memorial service in Indianapolis, giving us insight we never would have had were it not for the horrible accident that ended his life.

Sometimes it takes a death to change things.

That was evident Sunday when NASCAR points leader Carl Edwards raised his hand in a drivers meeting at Talladega to clarify what would happen if there were a wreck on the final lap. Would drivers be expected to keep their foot on the pedal and sprint through the wreckage or should they back off, assured of keeping their place in the field?

The answer was they should back off. But it was a question that might never have come up had NASCAR not been at its fastest track a week to the day of Wheldon's death.

There will be many more questions today in Indianapolis, when IndyCar drivers meet to talk about Wheldon's death and the future of the race series. Almost surely, most will be about safety and what lessons can be learned from the fiery crash that took his life on a warm fall afternoon in Las Vegas.

They will be the same kind of questions asked a decade ago when another beloved driver, Dale Earnhardt, was killed at Daytona Beach. The same questions raised in 1994 when the great Brazilian champion, Ayrton Senna, was killed in Formula One in Italy.

Earnhardt and Senna were the stars of their racing leagues, and their deaths were so jolting that safety issues quickly became a focus. Changes were made to protect drivers, and there hasn't been a death in NASCAR or Formula One since.

Change is already under way with a new car for next year that reportedly will include a reinforced cockpit and partly enclosed wheels. Wheldon was the main development driver for the car and had extensively tested its new features, only to die in his last race in the old car.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg