Tony Stewart hits, kills driver in sprint car race
- Thread starter NationalTitles18
- Start date
I never have liked Tony Stewart as a human being, he's a "Hair Trigger" hothead, the kid put himself in front of Tony's car, had Tony actually changed direction running the kid down..I could see charges..When he hit the kid his back tires came off the ground & he lost traction..That's when it sounded like he punched the gas..
I have watched the video from Deadspin before Tim Brando could tell me Dial should be suspended for violating the targeting rule. I can't link it because of some severe language violations of TF standards.
I have a lot of thoughts on this, some of which may be incoherent.
1) Ward should have stayed in his car.
2) Ward had no cotton picking business strutting out onto the track.
3) My suspicion is that Ward was a 20-year old who wanted to go be a bad dude and tell everyone how he "stood up" to Tony Stewart. Stewart was surely the most well-known racer in that race. You're not going to tell me Ward didn't know EXACTLY where Stewart was when the initial contact happened. Then he jumps out and makes a scene and - unfortunately - gets hit.
4) Stewart has a well-known history of anger management issues. But let me ask the question anyway: what history might a guy who jumped out of a car and basically tried to act like a bad dude have? What if Ward's history emerges from this as a girlfriend beater or bully or something? IN NO WAY defending Stewart but - it wasn't Stewart marching out of his car in anger on the video I saw.
5) If you watch the video, the blue and white 45 sort of slides his car by Ward as if he's surprised to see him. Stewart is not far behind. Is it not theoretically possible that Stewart did not see him until he was right on him? The 45 in front of Stewart and Stewart himself make somewhat similar motions as if they're trying to avoid Ward. Remember - it's on dirt so this is not a dime turning on concrete.
6) If Stewart's GOAL was to hit him, I find it hard to believe he didn't do more than he did - a sort of swerve.
7) Some DA is going to be pressured one way or the other to exact justice somehow for someone. If a DA makes a reasonable conclusion that it was just an accident, there will be story after story about how the DA let Stewart off because of his celebrity. If the DA tries Stewart for manslaughter (again, perhaps a reasonable conclusion), there will be tons of ink and (wait for it) NASCAR will ban the guys who race for its group from participating in these little dog and pony shows that allow small dirt tracks to raise ticket prices because "we can go see Driver X."
My initial thought based on what I see is that this is one hot head who didn't mean to hurt the other hot head killing him instead albeit unintentionally.
I have a lot of thoughts on this, some of which may be incoherent.
1) Ward should have stayed in his car.
2) Ward had no cotton picking business strutting out onto the track.
3) My suspicion is that Ward was a 20-year old who wanted to go be a bad dude and tell everyone how he "stood up" to Tony Stewart. Stewart was surely the most well-known racer in that race. You're not going to tell me Ward didn't know EXACTLY where Stewart was when the initial contact happened. Then he jumps out and makes a scene and - unfortunately - gets hit.
4) Stewart has a well-known history of anger management issues. But let me ask the question anyway: what history might a guy who jumped out of a car and basically tried to act like a bad dude have? What if Ward's history emerges from this as a girlfriend beater or bully or something? IN NO WAY defending Stewart but - it wasn't Stewart marching out of his car in anger on the video I saw.
5) If you watch the video, the blue and white 45 sort of slides his car by Ward as if he's surprised to see him. Stewart is not far behind. Is it not theoretically possible that Stewart did not see him until he was right on him? The 45 in front of Stewart and Stewart himself make somewhat similar motions as if they're trying to avoid Ward. Remember - it's on dirt so this is not a dime turning on concrete.
6) If Stewart's GOAL was to hit him, I find it hard to believe he didn't do more than he did - a sort of swerve.
7) Some DA is going to be pressured one way or the other to exact justice somehow for someone. If a DA makes a reasonable conclusion that it was just an accident, there will be story after story about how the DA let Stewart off because of his celebrity. If the DA tries Stewart for manslaughter (again, perhaps a reasonable conclusion), there will be tons of ink and (wait for it) NASCAR will ban the guys who race for its group from participating in these little dog and pony shows that allow small dirt tracks to raise ticket prices because "we can go see Driver X."
My initial thought based on what I see is that this is one hot head who didn't mean to hurt the other hot head killing him instead albeit unintentionally.
Bingo.
I agree with all of this.
Ultimately the kid should have NEVER gotten out of his car....let alone STRUT INTO TRAFFIC and specifically INTO STEWART'S PATH.
This type of behaviour is unfortunately a by-product of what circle track promoters have allowed - a cross between WWE and the Beverly Hillbillies at times (no disrespect meant to those professionals in the sport).
I doubt that any legal charges will be brought - now a civil suit? No doubt that will be coming yes sir.
Just my 2 cents.
Some people need to learn the basics of a winged sprint car. Yes I am a Tony Stewart fan (Gordon fan first though). If you look at the winged outlaw sprint cars the wing on the drivers RIGHT side blocks a lot of your view. Not to mention dirt/mud gets on your visor (reason for tear offs but still) and then you have the pitch of the track in the turn also hinders your view. I've been on the turns at Talladega and you can look out of either window and all you see is THE TRACK and that's in a regular car and not a winged sprint.
Watch the video on CNN where they freeze it. The kid expected Stewart to see him and I don't think Stewart seen him. Where they freeze it you can see him buckle his knees when he notices Stewart is higher than he expected him to be. Sadly he should have NEVER gotten out of the car and got into the racing groove. Winged sprints are driven more by throttle than anything and cannot stop on a dime. Also on the video if you notice the kid was trying to be seen in FRONT of the car because even he knew you cannot see out the right side. The car in front of Stewart had to miss the kid and the kid even halfway jumped out of the way when he noticed he got too close and had no idea Stewart was even higher in the groove. Recipe for disaster right there.
As for the "sounds" yes you are going to hear the cars gunning the motor even on caution laps. They are direct drive cars, very light weight and have a ton of horsepower. It is not even known if Stewart even knew the caution was thrown for the kid or not as well. Stewart slid into his groove to cause the caution but we don't know if he knew the kid wrecked or was still on his rear. He knew there was contact I'm sure as they did touch but like I said with the horrible line of sight on a winged sprint you just don't know.
Ward could have gotten his point across later on or as Stewart went by. He of all people should have known better to get anywhere near the racing groove with those cars. If this was open wheel or late model dirt then it wouldn't have been as dangerous but with winged sprints getting near the groove alone was dangerous enough without cars going by..
Watch the video on CNN where they freeze it. The kid expected Stewart to see him and I don't think Stewart seen him. Where they freeze it you can see him buckle his knees when he notices Stewart is higher than he expected him to be. Sadly he should have NEVER gotten out of the car and got into the racing groove. Winged sprints are driven more by throttle than anything and cannot stop on a dime. Also on the video if you notice the kid was trying to be seen in FRONT of the car because even he knew you cannot see out the right side. The car in front of Stewart had to miss the kid and the kid even halfway jumped out of the way when he noticed he got too close and had no idea Stewart was even higher in the groove. Recipe for disaster right there.
As for the "sounds" yes you are going to hear the cars gunning the motor even on caution laps. They are direct drive cars, very light weight and have a ton of horsepower. It is not even known if Stewart even knew the caution was thrown for the kid or not as well. Stewart slid into his groove to cause the caution but we don't know if he knew the kid wrecked or was still on his rear. He knew there was contact I'm sure as they did touch but like I said with the horrible line of sight on a winged sprint you just don't know.
Ward could have gotten his point across later on or as Stewart went by. He of all people should have known better to get anywhere near the racing groove with those cars. If this was open wheel or late model dirt then it wouldn't have been as dangerous but with winged sprints getting near the groove alone was dangerous enough without cars going by..
Most sprints don't use a windshield because of how wet and slick the tracks can be. With sprints being open wheeled they throw chunks of mud. Most will use a metal screen to stop the big chunks from almost knocking them out when at full speeds and the reason they use tear offs on their visors. If people think visibility is horrible in a NASCAR car, just imagine cutting that view in half at best and you have a winged sprint car. I'm still not even sure they are able to use radios and spotters yet, I know up to a few years ago they still didn't use them and couldn't use them. I'm almost positive they DON'T use radios still so it is very likely Tony Stewart didn't see this kid until it was too late...
TS clipped Ward and spun him out
Ward thought TS did it on purpose and got PO'd
Ward got out of his car and walked on the track to shout at TS when he came around on the next lap
TS thought he would show him by getting close and brushing him back with a close pass
TS never meant to hit Ward
TS misjudged
Ward is dead
Thats the way I see it.
Ward thought TS did it on purpose and got PO'd
Ward got out of his car and walked on the track to shout at TS when he came around on the next lap
TS thought he would show him by getting close and brushing him back with a close pass
TS never meant to hit Ward
TS misjudged
Ward is dead
Thats the way I see it.
That was a classic winged sprint wreck where one driver slides into the other and/or they run out of groove and go into the wall. That kind of wreck happens ALL THE TIME in that type of class. If you look at the video the kid was almost hit by the sprint car that was in FRONT of Stewart, so I guess he decided to try and brush back Ward as well? To me it is silly for anyone to truly think a guy would want to brush someone with a moving car doing highway speeds at the minimum with open wheels to boot. The kid simply got too close to the drivers who could not see him and sadly it cost him his life.
We're outnumbered and I hope we're wrong, Bamaro, but we're in the same foxhole on this one.
I don't know too many who don't agree that the crashes are a big part of the appeal of NASCAR.
Well how about the fighting?
Didn't it begin back in 1979 with the Donnie Allsion and Cale Yarborough fight?
I wonder how much this mindset - this culture - played into this tragedy.
Well how about the fighting?
Didn't it begin back in 1979 with the Donnie Allsion and Cale Yarborough fight?
I wonder how much this mindset - this culture - played into this tragedy.
Just remember: intentional or not, Tony Stewart has to live with it. That's one heavy cross to bear. Jack Tatum was never the same after he paralyzed Darryl Stingley with an intentional (though legal) shot. It emotionally destroyed him. This is not a pile of cars rolling together into a big wreck a la the death of Dale Earnhardt, where no single factor caused the fatality.
This was pretty much running over a guy head on even if he wasn't seen at the time. It would torment any of us to do that on the street as an accident, and while Stewart may attempt to rationalize it as "well, if he had just stayed in his car," that's a hollow justification to your conscience.
This was pretty much running over a guy head on even if he wasn't seen at the time. It would torment any of us to do that on the street as an accident, and while Stewart may attempt to rationalize it as "well, if he had just stayed in his car," that's a hollow justification to your conscience.
Yeah, fans don't understand that. He absorbed all the G forces and impact himself; had it been a flipping wreck with disintegrating energy, he would have survived. Coincidentally, Stewart had a horrific wreck in that same race and tumbled over multiple cars.
I will be surprised but not shocked if charges aren't brought against Stewart. It's amazing this hasn't happened before.
Yeah, I'm not a racing fan anymore, not since the days of Petty, Yarborough/Yarbrough the Allisons, Pearson etc so I dont "have a dog in this hunt". I just know what I saw and what I have just read about TS(hot temper). It was a dumb move (for both) gone wrong. Remember TS is a PROFESSIONAL driver and also I dont buy the excuse that he couldn't see where he was going. IMO, that excuse is ludicrous.
Criminal charges have not been ruled out. Article also mentioned that Stewart caused a similarly dangerous incident at the same track in 2013 when he caused a 15 car wreck and a 19 year old drive was seriously injured. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tony-stewart-questioned-twice-in-criminal-probe-into-fatal-crash/
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