Tony Stewart Kills Kevin Ward

[Inuyasha]

Tragic. Guy was on the track but I've read this is part of NASCAR culture (????) so can't blame the guy fully for walking into on coming traffic. Others are saying Stewart did it on purpose. i think that's nuts. Guy is a professional and it looks from the video he was trying to avoid him.


VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED :


http://youtu.be/Uk-xIwbFpkQ

[Rodster]

Smoke is a badass on the track but I seriously doubt there was any intention to hurt Ward Jr. If anything I blame Ward Jr. You don't get out of your car to confront on coming cars. That's plain stupid and there's a reason for that, he's now dead.

[bulls23]

Smoke is a badass on the track but I seriously doubt there was any intention to hurt Ward Jr. If anything I blame Ward Jr. You don't get out of your car to confront on coming cars. That's plain stupid and there's a reason for that, he's now dead.

Agree completely. Surprised this doesn't happen more often with all the bravado in racing. Why get out of your car and walk into oncoming traffic? Tragic but completely stupid.

[JackB1]

Agree with both of you, Rodster and Bulls. You cannot blame Stewart at all. The last thing you are expecting to see is someone walking out in the middle of the track. Just plane dumb on Ward's part. Now he's paid the price for his stupidity with his life. Tragic and totally avoidable. Any driver that gets out of his car on a racetrack, whether it's Sprint cars or Nascar, should be heavily fined and suspended for a good amount of time.

[JackB1]

Tragic. Guy was on the track but I've read this is part of NASCAR culture (????) so can't blame the guy fully for walking into on coming traffic.

You can't blame a driver for getting hit after walking onto the middle of a track into oncoming traffic???

So if someone gets gored to death by "running with the bulls", he's not to blame either then because it's part of that culture too? Please.

[XXXIV]

Ive watched it more than once( not cause I like it) and to the gf and I it kind of looks and sounds like he swerved and punched it. Probably trying to scare him or spray him? I am pretty sure he wasnt trying to hit him. Her not so much but Im not going to argue with her( I never win) but walking onto the track is beyond insane.

Getting spun out on the track? Guy got himself killed for no damn good reason.

Just sad. Feel bad for everyone. Tony Stewart has to be torn up.

RIP Kevin Ward.

[XXXIV]

Tragic. Guy was on the track but I've read this is part of NASCAR culture (????) so can't blame the guy fully for walking into on coming traffic.

You can't blame a driver for getting hit after walking onto the middle of a track into oncoming traffic???

I would s*** my pants and most likely die soon after if I ever found myself on the middle of a race track during a race.

[Teal]

It takes a tin-foiled-hat moron to think that Stewart did that on purpose. Don't want to speak ill of the dead, but...stupid.

[Inuyasha]

Tragic. Guy was on the track but I've read this is part of NASCAR culture (????) so can't blame the guy fully for walking into on coming traffic.

You can't blame a driver for getting hit after walking onto the middle of a track into oncoming traffic???

So if someone gets gored to death by "running with the bulls", he's not to blame either then because it's part of that culture too? Please.

I was just pointing out some fans were giving the excuse that it ok to walk into the track since it's nascar culture. Whatever that means.

[Rodster]

Someone had made a comment on another forum that depending on the speed and what part of the track the car is on, you have to give the car some gas or the sucker heads straight for the wall. Maybe PK can explain if that's true.

[XXXIV]

I was just pointing out some fans were giving the excuse that it ok to walk into the track since it's nascar culture. Whatever that means.

What does it mean?

What culture would that be? Walking in front of a race car during a race? To confront a race car? Play chicken with it?

Thats just f***in crazy.

[Inuyasha]

Lots if stories even in the MSM about this. Some driver was saying he thought Stewart was going to scare him by spaying him w dirt but the guy got too close.

I agree, pk probably can give us better details.

[TCrouch]

I've driven these cars, on tracks much like the one you see there. It's dimly lit, the kid is in an all-black firesuit and helmet, at the end of a corner that is more dimly lit than the rest of the track.

In the kid's mind, it seems that he was all ready to compete against Stewart and Tony got the better of him coming down the front stretch. He turned in too late, as he was already off the cushion on the ENTRY to one, let alone the exit of 2. The 'contact' with Stewart could barely be considered contact in dirt racing. Ward was already out of shape, and once you get to that point, you have two options--keep the hammer down and try to run an outside-in move, or let off the gas and watch the car snap around and wreck. It takes some SERIOUS stones to take option 1, but it looked like he was trying--but Stewart was there still. So he let off, and he just lost it.

At that point, it seems he's all worked up and ready to give Stewart a piece of his mind--like no big superstar is going to come and push around those local boys! But he does the absolutely unthinkable thing--he gets out of the car in the darkest portion of the track, and walks away from his easily-visible vehicle.

What you have to remember is Stewart already would have had mud on his visor (you have a limited number of clear tear-offs that you rip off during a race, and you typically take them off at the END of a caution and not at the beginning, to avoid having a bunch of clods thrown up as you are close to other vehicles on the yellow laps), the view to see out of the car is about 10 inches tall, and you have a wing that hangs down the right front side. You just cannot see that spot to the right. In a sprinter, you drive by hearing more than seeing. You hear cars around you. Considering he was probably following the car in front of him to some extent, and he would have seen the car up in the wall, I cannot even fathom him looking for a driver coming down to the center of the track. What's more, he likely didn't think there was any beef there.

But when he DOES see him, the first instinct is to stab the gas. That's because the Right Rear is much larger than the left rear, so when you do, it shoots the car to the left. When he does that, the second he lets OFF the gas, it's going to snap back to the right as the weight settles. It's exactly what you see in that video. It's not Tony trying to scare somebody or teach him a lesson--it's an "OH SH*T THERE'S SOMEBODY THERE!" and instinct. Plain and simple.

He gunned it, sure. But you gun it to get out of trouble in a sprinter. The fact is it never would have happened if that poor kid just stayed in his car...but at 20 years old, how many of us felt invincible and thought nothing bad could happen? When we look back at this, this incident is what will likely lead to a more globally adopted penalty system to curb this behavior in all series of motorsport, and honestly--it's very needed.

But there was no crime here. Just a tragic, tragic accident when tempers flare on a race track, and poor choices are made.

[XXXIV]

Great post Terry.

Thanks.

[Diablo25]

Great post Terry.

Thanks.

Agreed.

[JackB1]

Great post Terry.

Thanks.

+1

so great to get a perspective from someone so familiar with the sport.
I felt like I was reading an article on ESPN....not DSP!

[Naples39]

It's a tragic thing for sure. This was on deadspin, which gives me some mixed feelings;

Tyler Graves, a sprint-car racer and friend of Ward's, told Sporting News in a phone interview that he was sitting in the Turn 1 grandstands and saw everything that happened.

"Tony pinched him into the frontstretch wall, a racing thing," Graves said. "The right rear tire went down, he spun on the exit of (Turn) 2. They threw the caution and everything was toned down. Kevin got out of his car. … He was throwing his arms up all over the place at Tony for most of the corner.

"I know Tony could see him. I know how you can see out of these cars. When Tony got close to him, he hit the throttle. When you hit a throttle on a sprint car, the car sets sideways. It set sideways, the right rear tire hit Kevin, Kevin was sucked underneath and was stuck under it for a second or two and then it threw him about 50 yards."

There's no doubt, that Stewart gunned it near the guy on the track. Did he do it to avoid him at the last minute, or as on-course bravado? The notion that Stewart meant to hit him is way too far fetched for me, but everything about this feels very uncomfortable.

[TCrouch]

Tried to explain that above. The video is clear that he gunned it, but there is no way it was a 'teach him a lesson' thing. I saw that on Deadspin on Saturday night, but it was a friend of the deceased--and he exaggerated the 50 yards bit just a little.

There's absolutely no way you would try to scare somebody like that with them out in the middle of the track. Stewart's not an idiot--he has too much to lose in the first place. He's hot headed, but never in a manner that could knowingly injure somebody that I've ever seen. The helmet-throwing incident at the car is about as bad as I've seen out of the guy.

But again, if you have the car tracking left anyway, as the vehicle always will as you go slow under caution, you have it angled slightly left from where Ward was. You're steering right to stop it from sliding down the slick banking, and the wing is there. Mud is there. Darkness is there. Ruts are there. That video also showed the car before Stewart almost hit the guy, and swerve at the last second, too.

I wouldn't know what to do in that situation, but having been in similar situations with an on-track car next to me, my instinct told me to get the hell out of there, and I hit the gas. You don't know what the intentions of the other person are. But I've watched that video 20 times, and it's not as simple as "I know how you can see out of these cars", as nobody knows what it would look like to go into a night race, in a fairly dark track, with a guy in a black firesuit standing in the track. You'd be stunned at how tough it is to see stuff out on the track. I was just out on track on July 5th at the local speedway, and snapped this shot at the end of the night:



That's with a ton of buildup covering the wall, and a pretty smooth and dry track. When you have thicker ruts, those can just be big black lines in your vision, which is already muddied up to begin with. Then you have that wing hanging down....like this:



Imagine a guy is approaching you from the right, and it's lit like you can see in the first image. Look at how low that wing hangs off to the side of where you sit. You could see, what...his belt? That friend of Ward's was upset and shocked, but I find it a HUGE stretch to think that anybody can guarantee what you can see from the seat of that car, with a guy who's in all black.

Bottom line, I am not defending Tony Stewart as a person, or that he's incapable of doing something stupid. I'm just saying that from what I've seen on that video repeatedly, I can't even fathom him doing something retaliatory. I don't even think he had a clue the guy would be upset with him. The racing incident was so minor, Tony was probably thinking "whoa, somebody wrecked" and had no idea it was the guy anywhere near him. He would have been wrecking behind him and the contact was negligible.

[Smurfy]

The racing incident was so minor, Tony was probably thinking "whoa, somebody wrecked" and had no idea it was the guy anywhere near him. He would have been wrecking behind him and the contact was negligible.

That's the part I don't get. Why was Ward so upset to begin with? He pretty much took himself out of the race, didn't he?

[Teal]

My guess? He was 20 years old, and wanted to make a scene because Smoke was racing with 'em. Brash and stupid.

[JackB1]

Why hasn't Paul weighed in on this yet? I am curious about his thoughts?

[pk500]

Why hasn't Paul weighed in on this yet? I am curious about his thoughts?

Because there's nothing I could add that Terry already hasn't said with much more wisdom, clarity and experience than I could muster. Plus I'm friends with people in Stewart's inner circle, and I'm not objective in this tragedy.

[JackB1]

Why hasn't Paul weighed in on this yet? I am curious about his thoughts?

Because there's nothing I could add that Terry already hasn't said with much more wisdom, clarity and experience than I could muster. Plus I'm friends with people in Stewart's inner circle, and I'm not objective in this tragedy.

OK...np.

BTW, why does Stewart even bother to do these low level Sprint races anymore anyway?

[pk500]

BTW, why does Stewart even bother to do these low level Sprint races anymore anyway?

Because he's a true racer. He does it for the love, not the money. True racers will drive anything, any time, anywhere.

Plus Stewart grew up in open-wheel cars on dirt ovals. It's his DNA.

[Rodster]

The kids, dad chimes in. http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/story/ ... in-ward-jr