Tony Stewart hits and kills another driver

NoChops

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sad story, horrific video. Black suit, black helmet, night race, not a great idea to jump out on the track. Sad day for racing all around.
 

Lithium

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After watching the video...however much fault you want to put on Tony, equal fault has to go to the guy himself.
 
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As somebody that raced sprint cars for numerous years and all over the place, I can tell you that those tracks are not lit very well at all, this track is no different.

It looks to me like Tony didn't see him (and would not have expected to see him) that far down on the track until it was too late. It's hard to tell, but it appears Stewart swerved to avoid him at the last second. We'll have to wait for his statement to hear from Tony what happened, but I seriously doubt he aimed for him.

Having witnessed, first hand, many incidents like this, I can tell you that the driver that cut the guy off and caused him to crash would be doing everything he could to be mister nice guy and not draw the official's attention. In Sprint Car races, the offender, obviously causing a guy to hit the wall, gets sent to the back of the pack, or even black flagged and tossed. Stewart, having a "race first, politics second" mentality, has dirt track etiquette burned into his brain. The last thing on his mind would have been purposely injuring a driver, he wants to win with dignity.

Drivers getting pissed happens all the time. Pissed drivers walking down the track enough to flip off other drivers or throw helmets/gloves at them, happens too. Somebody walking that far down the track, and obviously in the path of travel, while the yellow flag is just coming out, and cars are just slowing down, well, that never happens.

This kid was an idiot, IMHO. He should have stayed in his car and got towed to the pits then sucker punched Stewart after he hopped out of his car like smart drivers do.
 
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Largent80

Largent80

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Dude should never have been on the track at night especially. Plus he was a young guy trying to intimidate Stewart which also shows lack of good judgement.
 

EastCoastHawksFan

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IMHO it looked (and sounded) like he sped up and tried to kick up some dirt in the kids face . He failed miserably and deserves to be punished. No more racing / some jail time.
 
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Largent80

Largent80

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Stewart wasn't the one that spun out and he had no reason to be pissed. Quite possible he hit the gas in an effort to avoid hitting dude at the last second.
 

JGfromtheNW

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While the video is pretty hard to watch, to come out and accuse him of doing it on purpose and wanting a vehicular manslaughter charge based on the only released video so far is a joke.

In the video you can't see what direction/path that TS was moving, and the car comes into the shot when the two are roughly 10 feet away from each other. If you slow it down, you can see that Stewart's car's back end is sliding out just slightly towards the kid, then contact is made, and the wheels get jerked back the other way due to the resistance of the kid's body.

Why in God's name would Stewart risk his entire likely hood and potentially his freedom to scare some 20 year old kid on a dirt track the night before a race at Watkins Glen?

Unfortunately, this is 100% on the kid for acting like a hot head and trying to get in front of or intimidate Tony Stewart. The track was dark, the kid was wearing all black and was acting reckless. It is a really sad story and I'm sure Mr. Stewart didn't sleep well, if at all, last night.
 

Laloosh

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I watched the video last night. My first impression (after having viewed it 3 times and not reading articles about it) was that Stewart gunned it to scare the kid. I don't think for a second that it was intentional. Just looked like two poor choices with the worst of consequences.

Feel terrible for this kid's family and friends. Feel terrible for Stewart as well. If he was trying to be a wise ass with the kid, he's going to have to live with that knowledge.
 

dontbelikethat

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Stewart:

“There aren’t words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr. It’s a very emotional time for all involved, and it is the reason I’ve decided not to participate in today’s race at Watkins Glen. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and everyone affected by this tragedy.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian ... r=yahootix
 

TXHawk

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The_Z_Man":2x0vdpx8 said:
Yea, if you watch the video in slow-mo, you can see the Stewart stomped on his gas pedal in frustration.

I liken it to punching a wall and breaking your hand when you are pissed off.

Did you want to break your hand, did you foresee those consequences? No! You were pissed off and being irrational.

At the same time the dude was an idiot running around a race track and looking to cause trouble, which is probably what pissed TS off.

Still... you are looking at a manslaughter situation, and with the Stewart's history of anger out there on tape - much more problematic for his defense.

There are so many things wrong with this.

A sprint car is a high horsepower beast that is designed to be in a controlled slide all the way around a dirt track and the driver controls the slide using a combination of throttle, steering wheel, and brakes. You can't avoid someone in the middle of the track by releasing the throttle and turning the wheel like you would in a family car because all that would do is bring the tail around increasing the likelihood they would be hit. The driver has to use the throttle to control the car.

The visibility in these cars is also very poor. Not only are dirt tracks usually poorly lit but dirt is floating in the air and visors become coated. On top of that the wing restricts the drivers vision on his upper right side making it likely that Stewart never saw him as he came around the track until the last second.

Walking up to a sprint car in motion on a dirt track is dangerously foolish under any circumstances. Trying to speculate on Stewart's mindset based on a poor video that shows nothing about what he did prior to hitting Ward is absurd.
 

The Radish

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Sorry boys and girls but what little I follow car racing now a days is enough to know that Tony Stewart would not have intentionally do that sort of thing.

Under racing conditions at night I doubt the drivers can see much of anything except the other cars. They would never expect to have another driver on the track. I used to go 150 in short spurts in my drag racing days and can attest to how little real side vision you have. These guys go that fast and faster and I'm sure your side vision is at best minimal.

:les:
 

Jville

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I'm not so sure about that Les. Premeditated murder? No. But manslaughter in a heated moment? I think Tony is capable of losing composure and control. He has instilled a reputation for being a hot head in the minds of many. There was the following incident with a young driver a little over a year ago.

The stalking figure of Tony Stewart moving toward Joey Logano belied the ill intention the three-time Cup champion fostered for the 22-year-old driver.

Upon arrival, Stewart pushed Logano, and punches quickly followed. In a chaotic scene, the two were separated.
[youtube]qWckiuRKXzE[/youtube]

"I'm gonna bust his ass" -- Tony Stewart

Tony processes the wealth and influence to benefit from public relations specialist who will manage and shape public perceptions of Kevin Ward's death at the hands of Stewart. Still perceptions of manslaughter will now be tied to his legacy in the minds of many. Everybody loses ...... and none more than Kevin Ward Jr.
 

Reaneypark

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I've watched the video too a few times (pretty brutal). It's important to remember that the guy taking the video is likely a couple hundred yards away from the incident and that there were several cars on the track. The more I saw the video with that in mind, the more I began to think that the revving sound isn't coming from Stewart's car, but is from one closer to the camera and out of frame and the timing is coincidental. It really looks like Stewart tried to skid around the kid at the last second after seeing the kid and the kid was just too far down into his racing line.

On first look, you think OMG, he aimed for the kid and gunned the gas to mow him down, but after looking at it from a driver's point of view and realizing it's dark, there's a caution flag, so his vision is locked on the car ahead to keep the safe line, and Stewart is going into a turn on dirt in a sprint car, which behaves much differently than a family sedan on pavement, I believe this is just an awful accident, that unfortunately could have been avoided if the kid stayed in his car.
 

Jville

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The more I think about it. The more I wonder if the racing community failed Kevin Ward Jr.

An opinion article on Tony's temper and self control.

There has been a long series of incidents where Tony Stewart let his temper get the best of him going all the way back to his rookie year when Tony tried to climb in Kenny Irwin's window to get to him after an incident in Martinsville. Other incidents include post race run-ins with Jeff Gordon, shoving incident in Daytona with Robby Gordon, multiple incidents with reporters... and the list goes on.

Recently Tony was fined and put on probation by both NASCAR and Home Depot for an incident with a photographer after the Brickyard 400. Now we have Tony Stewart being investigated by the Sullivan County, TN sheriff's department for allegedly shoving a woman after the race in Bristol, and a safety worker from New Hampshire is accusing Tony of punching him after Stewart wrecked out of the July race.

Tony Stewart just doesn't have it in him to make nice when he's upset. Worse than that, his outbursts always seem to be physical. If he were yelling at reporters, fans and safety workers that would make for a good story, but wouldn't be worthy of fines and suspensions. However punching, shoving and hitting with his car just can not be tolerated.

[urltargetblank]http://nascar.about.com/library/weekly/aa091602a.htm[/urltargetblank]

Image.aspx

A June 2014 article .....
We’re not certain that Stewart’s sidelined threat of “I’m going to run over him every chance I’ve got from now ‘til the end of the year, every chance I’ve got . . .” was delivered to Kenseth during the race, but he certainly received the message after.

However, Kenseth already has endured his share of being run over by Stewart this year — at Sonoma in June and last month at Indianapolis. Kenseth attempted to reach out to his fellow driver after the Sonoma incident, but Stewart came at the No. 17 Ford again at Indy. But Bristol was over the top, even for Stewart.
Link >>> [urltargetblank]http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/Tony-Stewart-Matt-Kenseth-Bristol-incident-part-of-larger-NASCAR-feud-082712[/urltargetblank]
 

HOLLYWOOD

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Having been around racing a little, the one major rule during the track meeting is to stay in your car until track personnel get to you. Unless there is a fire. It is driven into your head from day one.

As for those sprint cars, you're driving a shopping cart with essentially the only control being the throttle.

As for how and why it happened, from the grainy videos I've seen, imo it's impossible to tell TS' s intentions. Sad situation no matter what.
 

TXHawk

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Jville":unvhcfdl said:
I'm not so sure about that Les. Premeditated murder? No. But manslaughter in a heated moment? I think Tony is capable of losing composure and control. He has instilled a reputation for being a hot head in the minds of many. There was the following incident with a young driver a little over a year ago.

The stalking figure of Tony Stewart moving toward Joey Logano belied the ill intention the three-time Cup champion fostered for the 22-year-old driver.

Upon arrival, Stewart pushed Logano, and punches quickly followed. In a chaotic scene, the two were separated.
[youtube]qWckiuRKXzE[/youtube]

"I'm gonna bust his ass" -- Tony Stewart

Tony processes the wealth and influence to benefit from public relations specialist who will manage and shape public perceptions of Kevin Ward's death at the hands of Stewart. Still perceptions of manslaughter will now be tied to his legacy in the minds of many. Everybody loses ...... and none more than Kevin Ward Jr.

Stewart's car wasn't wrecked. Based on the video It's not even certain that his car even touched Ward's car, so why would he be in such an angry mood as he came around that he decided go after Ward even if it was without intent to hit him? There was only one person on that video who had indisputably lost his cool and that was Ward who had no business charging into the middle of a live track. The video provides no evidence whatsoever of Stewart's state of mind.
 

Jville

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The references point to a pattern of incidents and self control issues ...... and are not isolated to a singular incident. There are plenty more for anyone who wants to do the searches.
 

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