sunday after a chain-reaction crash involved more than a dozen in the race there. the smashup sending his car flying through the air before it slammed against a wall and exploded. the. jon: rescue workers on the scene quickly, airlifting wheldon to the hospital. the 33-year-old champion died surrounded by his wife and two young sons. other drivers overwhelmed by the loss. >> i can't, i think about, i'm just thinking about suzie and the boys and i think about them i'm struggling to hold it together. but he, yeah. i don't know what else to say. >> just ask everybody else to pray because the family is the one say stays and families suffer most of it. so, that's the way, that -- unfortunately it is hard. we've got to accept. jon: casey stiegel is following the story live from our los angeles bureau. casey, i guess there were already safety questions ahead of this race, huh? >> reporter: jon, you bet. some of the drivers reportedly expressed concern about the number about of cars on the field. 34 cars involved in yesterday's race. also concerns being raised about the speeds in which they were traveling. about 223 miles an hour. dan wheldon's car, number, 77, is highlighted in the video that you're about to see. it is all obviously so dramatic, caught on camera. and really happening in the blink of an eye. you can see there was nothing he could do to avoid hitting the other cars that had already crashed. and that is why those safety concerns were brought up. they say because the field was so crowded there was little room for error. wheldon's car then went airborne and slammed into what is known as the catch fence. look at the sparks in these still pictures. they also show the cars literally breaking into pieces. even though he was just 33 years old, dan wheldon had already been considered a legend in the world of racing. he won 16 times in his indy car career, a career cut terribly short. >> everybody is in shock and it is the risk that comes with the support but it is a huge loss to the whole indy car and family. >> i have seen something like that. and the answer is you never, you don't want to see stuff like that. >> i don't remember a lot of cars being here -- >> it hurts. you don't come to the races to see stuff like that. >> the remainder of yesterday's race was canceled, something that is extremely, extremely rare, jon. jon: stakes are always high in this kind of racing but particularly high at this event, huh? >> reporter: yeah, especially for wheldon. he was racing for a $5 million bonus. he also had to start at the back of the field yesterday as part of a special race promotion but he quickly come up through the pack. the british driver was also supposed to sign a brand new contract following that race. he was going to rejoin andretti auto sports, the same team he won the indianapolis 500 for back in 2005. wheldon lived in florida. he was just married in 2008. had two small children. his youngest son was just born in march, jon. jon: i had the pleasure of meeting him just a couple years ago at a charity event for the national guard youth foundation. just a great guy. didn't know him well, obviously, that one event. >> reporter: right. >> great guy and human being. he will be sorely missed. casey stiegel. >> reporter: john, 33 years old but already a legend. jon: so sad. thanks, casey. >> reporter: yeah. jenna: we'll turn to some politics now. fox news is america's election headquarters and 2012 hopeful herman cain has certainly been on a roll as of late. tonight he will hold a news conference in arizona. after seeing a big surge in the polls he is vowing to challenge rival rick perry for the critical evangelical vote. karl rove, former chief of staff to president george w. bush and fox news contributor. he is here to talk about a whole host of things. karl, before we go to which candidate goes after which group i love your opinion on this look at herman cain's policy, his strategy and the money, is he a serious contender? >> in some ways yes. in other ways he has yet to prove how serious a contender. he has an interesting idea grabbed attention. the more attention 9-9-9 gets i'm not sure how much more support it generates. it may generate people dropping away for him. people figuring out a 9% sales tax is 9% federal sales tax on top of the local sales tax they already pay. that is causing people consternation. he does have momentum, does have passion, does have enthusiasm, doesn't have much in the way of money and doesn't have much of a presence in the early states that make-or-break a candidate, iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. in two of those states, iowa and south carolina he has good numbers you have to go there and lock those numbers in with organization, presence and people on the ground. jenna: talk a little bit about the money you just brought up. you of course are a part of a group american crossroads. a pac, political action committee, raises money to put to work for certain election cycles like this one. do you have a strategy for 2012? where are you putting that money? do you know now?. >> we have a goal of $240 million. we raised $72 million in 29 weeks in 2010. many of our donars are back. we anticipate with a hard effort we'll get to where we need to be and plan the presidential race, senate races and congressional race. >> so that is not done yet? >> no it is not done and went be done until the end. we already spent this year 16 1/2 million dollars issue advocacy advertising during the debt ceiling debate. we anticipate having a large war chest to battle back, march, april, may, that the president will come back after the republican nominee whoever he or she is and the republican nominee will be out of gas and cash we'll be there to defend him. jenna: mitt romney and rick perry, when you look at herman cain it can be made up different ways for example, through pacs. led the segment talking a little bit about the evangelical group and the courting of this group. does the republican presidential nominee, do they need to have this group? is this a do-or-die group for whoever gets the nomination? >> yeah, well look it is an important part of the republican coalition. it plays a disproportionate role in iowa because in iowa, about 60% of the of the people who turn out in these caucuses in typical years are self-described evangelicals. so what herman cain is suggesting here he is going to go toe-to-toe with rick perry who he announced and also he didn't announce her but michele bachmann has a good strength among this group in iowa and as does rick santorum. so this may be a signal that he, herman cain is now going to participate in iowa. he will be there saturday night. that is the first time since august 13th that he showed up in this first in the state, first in the nation contest and he has to be in iowa if he hopes to be a serious contender. jenna: sounds like you're saying he hasn't spent enough time there? that makes you wary? >> he hasn't spent enough time in any critical states. think about this. last week he was in tennessee for a bus tour. he had been in texas doing a book toumplt he has been very open about the fact he is selling a book. that kept him in states like texas and tennessee, kept him out of states like iowa, south carolina and new hampshire, florida and nevada that vote early. jenna: quick final question here. david axelrod on sunday shows over the weekend specifically mentioned romney is not mentioning any other candidates. is this a good call for the president's team to go after a specific republican contender or would you suggest against that. >> you know, why does he want to be a candidate all the time? why doesn't he want-to-be president. the most powerful image is a strong, confident leader being president. instead the obama white house and team obama is thrown away that image and makes him look like another grasping politician on a bus tour attacking republicans even though they don't yet have nominee. he would advantage himself much more if he focused on his day job and let the politics come when the pomtics should come for him namely next spring when there is republican nominee. they weakened themselves appearing to be so grasping and so political so focused on the campaign at the expense of the country. jenna: have to leave it there, karl. >> thanks for having me, jenna, israel's supreme court is hearing arguments against the release of more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners, some of them directly responsible for some of the worst terror attacks in recent times. in return for kidnapped israeli soldier gilad shalif, captured back until 2006 by militants in the gaza strip. meanwhile emotions running high throughout that nation as protesters on both side of the issue take to the strips. our leland vittert is live in jerusalem. leland. >> reporter: jon, it is a very high press as you mentioned. 1,000 to 1 but 80% of israeli citizens say we have to make the deal because there is feeling here in israel you do anything you can to bring a soldier home. but for the victims of those palestinian prisoners that are going to be released, this is a very bad deal. the sabaro pizza bombing in jerusalem killed 15. the attack in tel aviv killed more than 20, mostly teenagers. the hive fa bus 37 bombing killed 17. now the men and women behind some of israel's most deadly and horrific you side attacks will go free. does that seem fair to you? >> it is not fair. it is not fair and it is not just. >> reporter: he is like many fathers who now feel betrayed by a government willing to trade hundreds of convicted killers for one young soldier. >> the state of israel first failed to protect my son and to prevent this terrorist act. now trading him and me the second time by releasing his murderers. >> reporter: the victim families are marching to the prime minister's office to go ahead and protest this deal. they have white flags with them. they say this is a deal that is basically a surrender to those people who have promised to kill more israelis. >> this deal is going to bring two things. one is more kidnapping and second, more terror attacks. i have three other children who live in israel and i'm worried about their safety. >> reporter: history has a sad way of repeating itself here in the middle east. since the last major prisoner exchange the israelis tracked those people they gave back to the palestinians and since that time, jon they have been able to directly link those people to the deaths of 175 israelis. back to you. jon: leland individual earth, very thorny issue. jenna: racing community mourning today. could dan wheldon's death have been prevented? we'll look at that just ahead. jon: killer anthrax attacks, they spread fear across america in those jittery days after 9/11. 10 years later are we any better prepared for biological terrorism? jenna: that's a good question. an alarming new study about the dangers cell phones pose to your kids, next. 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>> well, i think indy car needs to look long and hard whether or not they want to keep racing on the high-speed oval tracks that were built specifically for nascar. in practice this weekend before the race the cars were reaching 224 miles an hour. you had had larger than usual field. you had 34 cars and you had some drivers there relatively inexperienced on the ovals. and several of the drivers before the race expressed fears that something really bad could happen. it only took, 11, 12, laps for this absolutely horrific accident to occur. jon: for our viewers might not be familiar with that that means, because they have banked oaf vals and put the pedal to the metal and not slow down the entire race. >> exactly. they don't lift off the goose for example. it is called pack racing and the cars are stuck really close together. in nascar they can touch and will not automatically wreck. if in indy cars touch with the open wheels it will cause accidents and drivers to lose control and because of high speeds they don't have time to react from the spinning cars in front of them. jon: in the open cockpit, they don't have the safety of role cage that nascar drivers have. my understanding that protective loop sits behind his head actually snapped off his car and he died of massive head injuries? >> yeah. i believe he died when his head hit the side of the wall after he, after he went into the catch fence, his helmet and head hit the side of the wall as his car was coming back down to the ground. jon: he was starting at the back of the pack as part of this special $5 million challenge. if he won the race he was going to split that money with one of the fans. and, you know, irony he wasn't involved in any way in creating this terrible accident, was he? >> no. it was pretty much, oh, in creating the accident, no. the accident occurred well in front of him and he just didn't have time to react. dan only raced part-time this year in the indycar series. he ended up winning the indy 500. he only participated in one other race. really what he wanted to go back and race full time next year. he got that sunday morning. andretti auto sport, one of the elite teams in indy car, signed him. he was going to take danica patrick's seat which is one of the most coveted seats in the sport. things were looking up for him. he has a wife and two small children. really one of the most charismatic figures in the sport. he did some color commentating for versa on the indy car races during the year that he sat out and, he did a really terrific job, and you know, a lot of people told him he has definitely a future in broadcasting. jon: right. >> that's what he wanted to do once he was done racing. jon: will there be changes? >> well, indy car will have some time now to look long and hard whether or not they want to keep racing on these ovals. i would suspect, yeah, there will be some radical changes upcoming in the series. jon: i mentioned a couple of minutes ago that i had a chance to have dinner with him a couple years back at the national guard youth foundation. there he is on the left along with dale earnhardt, jr., they were both driving national guard racing cars at the time. two great guys. i tell you what, dan wheldon could not have been more gracious with the fans there that night. all around good guy. really made an impression on me even though i'm not a huge race fan but he was just an all around good guy. such a sad, sad loss. >> yes. jon: thanks very much for being with us. lars anderson from sports illustrated. >> prayers out to that family, his wife and two young babies that he had. speaking of families this is another one we've been watching very closely for an entirely different reason. there are some brand new revelations from the family, the parents of missing 11-month-old lisa irwin. what her mother is now saying about the night her baby disappeared. much more from megyn kelly's interview just ahead. plus, turning oversays, u.s. troops in afghanistan phasing new dangers. miss till attacks inside pakistan that they can't fire back. what does this mean for the war in afghanistan? we have that just ahead. jon: in the midwest more twists and turns in the hunt for baby lisa as her mother, deborah bradley, makes a stunning admission by the night her daughter disappeared nearly two weeks ago. this comes as police say the parents have stopped cooperating. meantime missouri's governor assigned two dozen national guard troops to assist in the search right now. they are focusing on a large wooded area near the family's home near kansas city. 11-month-old lisa last seen in her crib. but her mother is telling our own megyn kelly some brand new details about the night the baby vanished. >> some folks will have an issue having more or five drinks while you're looking after a baby and two little boys. >> i'm sure they are. she was sleeping. i don't see the problem having my grown-up time. i took good care of my kids. >> you admit you were drunk. how drunk were you? >> just drunk. >> were you slurring your words? were you stumbling? >> i don't think so, no. >> do you remember the period well? >> no. >> is it possible you had a blackout? >> it is a possibility. i mean, just like anybody else when you drink you don't remember the things that happened. jon: oy boy. megyn kelly will have much more on her interview with deborah bradley when she appears live next hour, happening now. jenna: we're looking forward to that new information crossing our international desk. new reports u.s. troops in afghanistan are facing a huge increase in rocket attacks coming to them from inside pakistan. from one side of the border to another. "the new york times" reporting ground to ground rockets hit one military outpost at least a 55 times since may. this is as we get word of a surge in u.s. military activity near the tribal region right there at the border between pakistan and afghanistan. john hannah, is a senior fellow at the foundation for defense of democracies. he works with vice president dick cheney. john, when you hear reports like this and you also say hear soldiers on the ground they're firing at us but we can't fire back. why can't we fire back? >> i think our starting point since 2001 in afghanistan, jenna, has been that pakistan is in essence an ally of the united states helping us to defeat the taliban, defeat al qaeda and stablize a new democratic afghanistan. i think the dirty little secret we've all learned over the past several years is in fact with respect to afghanistan the united states wants to see the taliban lose while pakistan wants to see them win. that's a fundamental difference that we have with pakistan and i think we've got to shift our approach. jenna: and why do they want to see the taliban win? what is in it for them? >> i think it is all about primarily pakistan's strategic rivalry with india. pakistan has always been paranoid about india. it is always looking for strategic depth in its own backyard in case there was a war with india. it's surest ally has been the taliban. it was true in the 1990s. unfortunately it has proven to be true in the 2 thousands that the tal