Curious everyone's thoughts on the Tony Stewart thing yesterday

[Shadowracer]

Curious everyone's thoughts on the Tony Stewart thing yesterday

http://www.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2014-08-10/tony-stewart-sprint-car-hits-driver-fight-incident-trouble-investigation-new-york-watkins-glen-kevin-ward

ADVISED - NASCAR driver Tony Stewart Hits Kevin Ward, Jr., in Sprint Car Race[/url]

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=19973.msg111977#msg111977

[jcrashm2]

condolences to his family and friends.....he finished second at ohsweken friday nite...i want to hear tonys side but videos dont look good...there are numerous sides to it tho...there is a reason why they say stay with your car after a crash till track personnel get to you...how many times have we seen drivers do things after an incident, on the track or in the pits...alot of times the thing could turn out real bad...i remember seeing guys ramming cars in the pits after something years ago...just friday a couple of guys spun wheels and shot stones and rocks in the pits and people just standing there were getting pelted, and a guy leaned in for a yelling match bob showed up yelling at him to get back to his pit, driver could easily have gunned the car and knocked the guy flying...this could bring major change to how tracks handle such things in the future or they could just sweep it under the rug as a racing incident or just drag it thru the courts for many years something like moore and bertuzzi....altho both are still alive...

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[Shadowracer]

Yeah...and thats kind of why I posted. I think this WILL have some repercussions. It wasnt just a "racing deal" This could have been avoided. Honestly, take the fact that its Tony Stewart out of the equation for a second...that could have happened to anyone.

Makes me think of that vid that went around a few years ago of that guy (I think it was at Toledo) taking a running drop kick at that other guys front windshield. That could have gone the same way.   

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[Dougy109]

First off, let me say I feel bad for the drivers' family. At the same time I feel for Tony, because he has to carry that with him now. The guy should never have gone after Stewart, and he was almost clipped by another driver as well. It is a racing deal, and it's horrible. But if this guy is an experienced competitor, he should remember that was a dumb decision. He paid with his life sadly. Sprint cars have so many blind spots, track lighting, the guy wearing an almost black suit, and a sport that requires tear off visors. It's hard to see out of those things in the daytime, let alone at night.

Again, condolences to all parties involved, but this shouldn't have happened. And with great respect to his family, it was a bad move for him to get out of his car.

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[CanadianRacingOnline]

feel bad for what happened Why did the guy get out and run in front of cars. You know they are going to be sueing Stewart and that is just wrong.

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[Shadowracer]

Its just so bloody sad...truly for the family of this guy, and for Stewart as well.

I wasn't in the cockpit with him but I would bet that Stewart just meant to give the guy a little dirt spray...sort of like snowing the goalie in hockey.

And on thinking about it, man, i just wonder what Ward was thinking he was gonna do when Stewart came around.

I've never been a fan of "post wreck" antics. Maybe this is the old man coming out in me, but I remember Dave Silverthorn if someone wrecked him. He'd just get out of the car. Mountain of a man, standing there, beside his car,  with his helmet in his hand. When the offender came by, he'd just draw himself to full height and give the guy a big exaggerated finger waggle. "There'll be a next time buddy" is what he seemed to be saying. Yeah, Dave was pissed but he still seemed to manage to be stoic about it without losing his shit.

There's just no reason to go chasing after a guy, on the track, on foot. What are you going to do if you catch him?

I'm quite certain that insurance regulations and such, and some point, are going to decree that you can't get out of your car period while it's on the track.

Fortunately, at Delaware anyway, those kind of antics are extremely rare. However it might behoove the guys setting the ground rules to tell the guys "Listen. Take a breath. Stay with your car and don't do something stupid" And if the driver really can't control their anger, then maybe they shouldn't be there and need to be parked for a night. Take a lesson from the old school. 

I know it makes a show out of it when guys get mad and do stuff like throwing helmets, fighting and such. Bowman Gray Stadium, whom NASCAR fully (and wrongly) supports, thrives on this shit. Promoters secretly, and not so secretly, don't hate it when drivers fly off on each other. But racing can be crazy enough without all that stuff. Maybe its time to tell these guys (and to ther credit 99.8 percent of them know it already) that you have to put your ego in park,  be a grownup about it, and control yourself.

This was just a waste of a life.

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[ernie]

Only Tony knows what he did. My opinion....I don't even think he tried to dust him. The cars were still going at a pretty good clip even though the caution was out. The car in front of Tony had to swerve pretty aggressively to not hit Ward then he took a couple more steps in before Tony hit him. Can only imagine that Tony went WTF and turned to avoid him and that is why he hit him with the right rear. Not making excuses for Tony. Can't since all we have is this one video. Hell even the incident that started all this when Ward went into the fence wasn't a big deal. Seems this kid felt slighted by a big NASCAR star and felt he was going to show him. Stupid mistake and if he had survived he would likely be saying that. Instead the kid is dead, Tony has to live with the fact that his actions, intentional or not, resulted in his death. I for one can't imagine that feeling.

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[CanadianRacingOnline]

Why would you go running on a dirt track? It's sad that this happened but you have to fault the driver for getting out of the car and running on the track. He almost got hit before Tony hit him. Tony wasn't trying to hit him or spray him, looked like he was trying to move on and hit the gas and the tires spun and he hit the guy. This is my view of it from the video.

the track rules most likely say if you are in a wreck stay in the car or if it's on fire get out and away from the car but no where does it say a driver should get out and run in front of cars to track down the driver that wrecked you. I guess his rage got him killed. We can all learn from this racers or not racers we have to learn to control our rage and look at this sad example. I know I will think before I loose it.

SAD SAD SAD. Thoughts and prayers go out to both families involved.

Here comes the law suits against Tony for who he is.





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[John]

I know it makes a show out of it when guys get mad and do stuff like throwing helmets, fighting and such. Bowman Gray Stadium, whom NASCAR fully (and wrongly) supports, thrives on this shit. Promoters secretly, and not so secretly, don't hate it when drivers fly off on each other.

Bowman Grey has had a number of racing operations issues that (appear) to have gotten worse with time.  That speedway is a complicated case: in many ways it's what every race promoter could only dream of (full grandstand every week, strong driver rivalries, big personalities).  Yet, the fact remains that when stuff like this is going on, I'm not sure how they sleep at night:

looks into Bowman Gray dragging incident[/url]

We do become, at a certain point, desensitized to the strength, power, and weight of these machines.  This particular incident is a stark reminder of the respect and space that must be given to all racing vehicles and the potential tragic consequences of bad decisions.

I was profoundly disturbed after seeing the video late last night.  After two days of fun competition at Delaware it was sad to think that while we were having fun at our track, at another one not all that far away this was happening.  Don't let this death be in vain: all drivers take an extra second to think before you act.

-JH

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[murray]

I heard of two other incidents at ontario tracks this weekend...not good....went to grand bend drag races...everyone there was happy..

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