my apologies...i will call everyone out next time......a seriously sad way to die...i honestly wonder what he was thinking when he got out of the car...
Agreed. And that will be a big part of any investigation. The DA's office there or police investigators will need to talk to people who are experts in the field of sprint racing because sprint cars swerve when speeding up, that's why those cars do most of their fastest driving on the turns, so maybe Stewart was trying to avoid him
Interestingly enough, in Knoxville, the bit National's race (what Daytona is to NASCAR, the Nationals is to sprint cars), it was the Tony Stewart team driver that won out there. Donny Schatz
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Tony Stewart isn't going to drive today at Watkins Glen. David Ragan I believe will be in his car instead.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
Tony Stewart isn't going to drive today at Watkins Glen. David Ragan I believe will be in his car instead.
Wow, you don't know much about racing and drivers obviously. It's Regan Smith
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Wow, you don't know much about racing and drivers obviously. It's Regan Smith
Wow, gosh you sure zinged me there didn't you. Hey I knew I read Regan.
As for knowing NASCAR drivers names these days, you're right. I pretty much stopped following all sports quite a few years ago. I blame Curt Flood.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
IMHO, Tony revved his engine not to avoid Ward, but to send him a message...Tony was in a right corner on a banked track...any revving would send the rear end around into Ward...not avoiding him...he probably wanted to buzz Ward, but made a gross miscalculation and it ended up being a tragedy. Charges will most likely not happen but Stewart will have to live with it...the question to me is, will it matter to him?
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
"Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero, left, said at a news conference today in Canandaigua, NY, that investigators don't have any evidence at this point to support criminal intent in the fatal crash."
Only Stewart has the answers Monday, August 11, 2014 By Mike MacAdam (Contact) Gazette Reporter
I can’t imagine what it must be like to kill somebody, even if it’s an accident.
I also can’t imagine what took so long for Tony Stewart to decide not to drive the NASCAR race at Watkins Glen International on Sunday.
I’ve seen the appalling video of what happened at Canandaigua Motorsports Park during Saturday night’s Empire Super Sprints tour race, when 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. got out of his car and confronted Stewart as the NASCAR star was driving under caution.
If you haven’t seen the widely circulated one-minute, six-second clip that was shot by a fan and offers a perpendicular angle of Ward getting run over by Stewart, don’t bother.
Especially if you’re looking for clues as to whether there was some negligence or recklessness on Stewart’s part. Or some level of intent.
That was the knee-jerk suggestion by some on Twitter and various other platforms.
Save your grassy knoll theories, most of which center on the fact that you can hear a car, presumably Stewart’s, throttle up just before he hits Ward, drags him and jettisons him up the track.
My editor, Tom Boggie, has been covering motor sports for decades and assured me that a dirt sprint car takes off in a line like a dragster when you throttle up like that on a straightaway. All the power and torque go right to the rear wheels. If Stewart wanted to kick out the right rear tire, trying to scare or threaten Ward, he would have had to turn the front wheels to the left when he hit the gas (if, indeed, he’s the one who throttled up). But the video shows the front wheels of Stewart’s car facing straight ahead at the time of impact.
Could Stewart even see this kid, who was wearing a black firesuit on a relatively darkened part of the track?
Until Stewart answers that, we don’t know.
We do know what provoked Ward to walk up the track pointing his finger as Stewart and the rest of the field came around under caution.
Stewart got into Ward’s front left tire with his right rear, spinning Ward out. That’s racing. It happens.
This is racing, too: drivers get miffed when that happens, even incensed enough to get out of their cars looking for blood.
In a scene eerily reminiscent of Stewart throwing his helmet at Matt Kenseth’s car two years ago when they both wiped out at Bristol, Ward got out of his car, spotted Stewart as he came back around and walked toward the middle of the track pointing his finger at Stewart.
One car went by, then Stewart’s.
“I’m going to run over him every chance I’ve got from now until the end of the year, every chance I’ve got,” Stewart said of Kenseth right after the helmet-throwing scene at Bristol.
This is the scruffy, paint-scraping, old-school Tony Stewart that NASCAR fans love and hate in equal measure.
But mostly love, because he’s a throwback to the early years, the antithesis of the corporate-clean Jimmie Johnson.
He not only hasn’t forgotten his roots, he embraces them, hitting the dirt circuits on the eve of the big races and his day job with NASCAR. Just last year, Stewart raced at Fonda Speedway and Lebanon Valley Speedway.
Hell, my mom is a Tony Stewart fan.
That’s why it’s incomprehensible that there would even be a second of hesitation to pull out of Watkins Glen. When they finally announced, Sunday morning, that Stewart wouldn’t drive, I couldn’t get “What took you so long?!?” from screaming inside my head.
Let’s not forget that 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. wasn’t just a prop in another Tony Stewart drama.
I’d urge anyone to read Kevin Busbee’s terrific sports.yahoo.com story on him.
Busbee refers to the bio photo on kevinwardracing.com that “was obviously taken in the last couple years, and yet that face wouldn’t look out of place in a Civil War photograph, defiant and a touch surly and still nowhere near old enough to be suffering the cold realities of the adult world.”
Out of simple respect for the kid and his family, out of respect for those toiling on the backwoods dirt tracks without mega-sponsors like Mobil 1, there should never have been any question whether Stewart was going to drive on Sunday.
Everything about the response from his people and NASCAR was painfully ham-handed.
USA Today quoted Stewart’s “competition director” (whatever that is) Greg Zipadelli as saying “We’re business as usual today,” before they pulled out of Watkins Glen.
A tweet from NASCAR went thus: “With heavy hearts we turn our attention to today’s #CheezIt355.”
I can’t imagine what it must be like to kill somebody.
I can’t imagine that Tony Stewart would ever voluntarily watch the video of himself killing Kevin Ward Jr.
That would be unthinkable.
But if he did, would he see in Ward his own shadow?
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Racing is dangerous and leads to hostility and rage......TS is known for his outrageous behavior on the track...this isn't the first time he had an incident at this track...one happened last year and he was exonerated.
TS is known for wanting to win any way he can....I am trying to be neutral but watching past races, he is totally aggressive and in some instances the "bumping" is not an accident....happens all the time....Kevin Ward Jr. was a rookie .....TS is a pro.....whatever was going thru Kevin's mind will never be known.. and how TS reacted also....road rage is here in racing and always has been....now, new rules have to be set forth....this is an example of what can be a tragedy and needless death.
Sincere condolences to the family of Kevin Ward Jr...his friends and all race drivers......let this be a lesson to all.....and suspension for TS until this is investigated thoroughly....another behavior problem is one of the Bush boys.....
there is never a win win situation when this happens....God bless all.
Prediction - Tony will lose the PR battle because of his reputation and lose sponsorships, he will be pressured to sell his stake in Stewart-Hass Racing. He will probably face a civil suit and lose that too. I don't think he will get charged criminally.
Given that Mr. Ward was walking on the track, towards the moving traffic and dressed in a very dark outfit (all things which contributed to the tragic incident), I think it would be very difficult to bring either criminal action against or win a civil action against Mr. Stewart. Quite honestly, I think it showed very poor judgement for Mr. Ward to leave his car and walk into traffic. Unfortunately, it was a deadly mistake that he couldn't walk away from having gained a life lesson.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Given that Mr. Ward was walking on the track, towards the moving traffic and dressed in a very dark outfit (all things which contributed to the tragic incident), I think it would be very difficult to bring either criminal action against or win a civil action against Mr. Stewart. Quite honestly, I think it showed very poor judgement for Mr. Ward to leave his car and walk into traffic. Unfortunately, it was a deadly mistake that he couldn't walk away from having gained a life lesson.
While my gut feeling says it was an accident, you, DV, of course are NOT taking into account how these cars work. I doubt that Smoke would ever risk his lucrative NASCAR career over the purse at an ESS race, regardless of the hot head he is known to be. And since he doesn't tour with them either, points are not an issue either. However, and you wouldn't know or understand this, the way these cars handle, it could be easy to intentionally hit a driver sanding on a track or another car and proving it was intentional would be very difficult.
Uh, DV, regarding the dark "outfit" as you ignorantly call it, that is NOT an issue. There is ample lighting at the tracks, so of course you don't know what you are talking about on that. Though I think that people will see that as an issue and require fluorescent colored fire suits; , any lame brain would know they are called fire suits, common sense because there is gasoline in the car and crashes happen.
Car cam at a night race at Canandaigua in a sprint car. Plenty of light
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Prediction - Tony will lose the PR battle because of his reputation and lose sponsorships, he will be pressured to sell his stake in Stewart-Hass Racing. He will probably face a civil suit and lose that too. I don't think he will get charged criminally.
Anyone have some money out there willing to make an offer on Eldora?
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Anyone have some money out there willing to make an offer on Eldora?
He will probably sell that too.
He can't run from his reputation. A lawyer will cut him to ribbons. Find me a jury in America that will blame the 20 year old victim. 10 years from now, Tony will be driving dirt track modified's in some no-name town in backwoods Alabama.
NASCAR will not come to his rescue. Once this thing picks up steam, they will drop him like a bad habit. NASCAR is having enough trouble selling seats and getting sponsors. This is the last thing they need right now.
Quoted Text
During the 2010-11 offseason, Stewart said he was "very embarrassed and ashamed" after being questioned by Australian police (he wasn't charged) for hitting a track promoter with a helmet over a dispute over track safety while on a five-week racing tour of the country. In 2002, Stewart nearly lost his ride at Joe Gibbs Racing for shoving a photographer at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after a 12th-place finish in the Brickyard 400. He sought anger management counseling and was placed on probation for the incident, as he also was for striking Brian Vickers after a 2004 Cup race at Sonoma Raceway. There have been many other instances in which Stewart's legendary temper has flared without drawing punishment. Two years ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, he wasn't disciplined for hurling his helmet at Matt Kenseth's car after a crash while racing for the lead.
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