Tony in trouble

[ptclaus98]

Tony Stewart may be in big trouble if tonights rumors about him running a driver over at a sprint car race are true.

[Salamus]

Event got cancelled. Everyone was told to leave. Police, ambulance, and helicopter are at the track. There are rumours that the driver has past away but nothing confirmed yet. This is really scary.

[JHamilton]

New reports coming in, but nothing other than what was posted here:

http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/stor...stewart-081014

[JHamilton]

I'm not going to post it here, but there is a video circling around now that shows the incident. Hopefully, Kevin Ward will be okay.

[FIRE]

Big story!

Difficult to judge.

I assume Stewart tried to "scare" him.

[JHamilton]

Unfortunately, Kevin Ward Jr. was killed in this incident.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...park/13855401/

[FIRE]

[Nick Woodbury]

Now matter how any fanboy tries to spin the blame to either party, this is undoubtedly and without question the end of Stewarts career as a racing driver. It matters not whether or not he "tried to scare him", you watched the video, you heard him step on the throttle as he approached Ward and subsequently swiped him under the tire as clear as day, that was 100% an avoidable incident. Simply drive around the man Tony...MAKE AN EFFORT.

Don't get me wrong, Ward was a complete fool for getting out of his car and willingly putting himself in harms way, and sadly he paid the ultimate price for his actions. However, that does not change the fact that a multi-million dollar professional race-team owner and race car driver struck and killed a 20 year old sprint racer, setting a fantastic example for his millions of fans and NASCAR as an organization.


And to think, when I actually watched NASCAR, I idolized Tony and I was a massive fan of his. What a shame.

[R.Lee]

Originally Posted by Nick Woodbury

Now matter how any fanboy tries to spin the blame to either party, this is undoubtedly and without question the end of Stewarts career as a racing driver. It matters not whether or not he "tried to scare him", you watched the video, you heard him step on the throttle as he approached Ward and subsequently swiped him under the tire as clear as day, that was 100% an avoidable incident. Simply drive around the man Tony...MAKE AN EFFORT.

Don't get me wrong, Ward was a complete fool for getting out of his car and willingly putting himself in harms way, and sadly he paid the ultimate price for his actions. However, that does not change the fact that a multi-million dollar professional race-team owner and race car driver struck and killed a 20 year old sprint racer, setting a fantastic example for his millions of fans and NASCAR as an organization.


And to think, when I actually watched NASCAR, I idolized Tony and I was a massive fan of his. What a shame.

Given Stewart's history of temper tantrums, coupled with the fact that he just been involved in an on track altercation with Ward and then runs over and kills him, Stewart's infamous temper may have finally gotten the best of him! This could go VERY bad for him! I agree, it could very well end his career! Haas could very well need another partner.

I wonder who will drive the 14 car today or if it will be pulled from the line-up? I've ALWAYS said that Stewart's temper would. one day, get him into BIG trouble. That might have just happened!

[Nikki Katz]

I don't follow Nascar (or sprint cars) but this is one of the weirdest incidents I've ever heard of. Clearly running onto the track, under caution or not, is an amazingly stupid thing to do, but from what I'm hearing some say that Stewart accelerated into him? I'm really finding it hard to believe that anyone would do that. If he did then could that be jail time?

Anyway, horrible waste of life whatever happened.

[expaddockrunner]

http://m.crash.net/nascar/news/20752...-fatality.html

[fomoco]

Watched the video, interesting for the investigators.

We had a similar incident years ago, in V8SC's. Two drivers made contact,
Driver spun out, waited for other driver to come around, walked to edge of track, driver in car on track swerved towards driver off track. very stupid thing by both parties

Looks like the same only contact was made, and a driver is dead.

One he should have waited and not walked onto a hot track

Two the was no need for tony to accelerate as it was under caution flag.

This will be interesting investigation.

[rustyfan]

They both screwed up. Kevin Ward Jr. shouldn't have gone down as far as he did and Tony Stewart shouldn't have drifted up to send a message/scare him.

Something like this has been brewing for years now, especially on the smaller tracks. We've seen angry drivers being dragged, drivers jumping onto moving cars and so on. It was just a matter of time before someone got hurt really bad and now it finally happened.

[gomick]

Tony Stewart, WTF... There is no way his career can go on, under yellow & he does that - pathetic & sad!
RIP Kevin Ward Jnr...

[garcon]

A polite warning from the mods:

DO NOT POST A VIDEO OF THE INCIDENT.

Please read the relevant section of the FAQ, here: http://tentenths.com/forum/faq.php?f..._rules_content

[Paradise City]

Senseless - and it could easily be two other drivers, on a different day, in a different series. You need penalties to be applied if a driver returns to the track or gesticulates to a driver whilst himself on the track. I'm by no means a nanny-state person but a targetted reg or two might be in order here. And if you are at the wheel you need to be vigilant, not reckless. Particularly in a sport where there's contact a plenty, a marooned driver boiling and coming over is what happens. A man w/o a car whilst you're in one, is never a target to intimidate. RIP Ward.

[chernaudi]

Even if Tony comes out of this good on the legal end, this will probably push him down the road to retirement as an active driver. He's already had the broken leg and this will probably haunt him mentally and emotionally for a while.

I'm surprised that he's even going to try and race today. If I were NASCAR brass I'd encourage him to sit this one out based on his mental and emotional state. You can't be involved in a fatal accident like that and it not bother you. Even sitting out out of respect of Ward would be a good call on Smoke's end.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

I'm by no means a nanny-state person but a targetted reg or two might be in order here.

The rules are in place, but it's the consistency of their enforcement that is called into question. I don't follow sprint racing but I assume walking onto the track while the race is on is forbidden, even if it is under yellow. The first thing that came to my mind was a BES race where Mucke approached Westbrook to give him a mouthful (both in-car), only to accidentally swipe him and write both cars off. The original recommendation was that his licence should be revoked, but no lasting damage was done so Mucke got a slap on the wrist. It's easy to say that had there been injury Mucke would have been stripped of his licence, but that should have happened regardless of the outcome. It's the intent that we want to get rid of because otherwise this will happen again.

I'm not a big follower of American series apart from TUSC/PWC, but from an outsider's perspective on-track altercations seem to be played up as part of the "spice" of the event (and not just in NASCAR might I add). Stewart in particular has had his fair share of outbursts that even I've seen in promos and highlights. While I don't want to speculate on Tony's actions, I think what tranpsired last night would have been much less likely if the helmet/glove-throwing and window-grabbing were given multiple race suspensions. I do realize there's an element of "alpha male" hot-headedness that will never go away, but at the very least drivers need to be made aware how serious venturing onto a not-empty track is. Ward took his life in his own hands when he went to remonstrate with Stewart, this much we can unfortunately be certain of.

As I don't know the cars very well, do they have throttle telemetry? Even though that wouldn't be conclusive (direct drive, different rear tyre sizes, sliding on dirt, etc.) it would help piece together the sequence of events.

Regardless of where the blame is to be apportioned, this is utterly horrific and my sympathies go to all involved, especially the Ward family - RIP Kevin Ward. I hope this incident goes some way towards curbing the foolhardy attitude we see far too often in motorsports.

Originally Posted by chernaudi

I'm surprised that he's even going to try and race today. If I were NASCAR brass I'd encourage him to sit this one out based on his mental and emotional state. You can't be involved in a fatal accident like that and it not bother you. Even sitting out out of respect of Ward would be a good call on Smoke's end.

I'd go as far as pressuring him not to race, not only for the sponsor fallout/fan response/respect for the Ward family but for his own state of mind. He can't be holding up well having just been involved in a driver fatality. Wouldn't the investigators want him to sit the race out as well so they can speak to him again?

[canamman]

What a shocking start to what was going to be a glorious day at the Glen.
I have watched the video several times and I still cant believe it.
A lot of bad decisions that came together at the same time.

Cant help but thinking about when Tony threw his helmet at Kennseth's
car and how many young racers he set an example for.

Its time for some new universal rules with drivers doing these sorts of retaliation in the race groove it appears.

I hope Tony decides to sit todays race out away from the Glen. He may want to go seek out that drivers family and see if he can be of any help.
They should hear Tony's side of the story from him. They may or may not
receive him warmly.

[Salamus]

I think some of you are over-reacting just a little bit. We still don't know exactly what happened (the video doesn't answer every question).

One aspect that most are forgetting is the inadequate lighting on the track. It was dark on that part of the track. Ward was wearing a black firesuit. I wouldn't be surprised if Tony didn't see him until the last possible second. Maybe he tried to swerve but instead lost control of the car and hit Ward. If you look at the video, the car in front of Tony BARELY missed Ward. And he had to swerve out of the way too.

But again, we don't know exactly what happened. Just a bunch of speculation right now until the police finish their investigation.

[Accident]

I don't think it's wise to treat the video footage as something clear cut, because it isn't... It doesn't show the lead up to the contact to see the angle he was approaching from and such to see if he indeed move up, and people saying they can hear him hit the gas to accelerate... there are how many cars on a small dirt track? And his car isn't even on screen at the time you hear the acceleration I assume many people are talking about, to see if the car does indeed accelerate.

One thing to keep in mind with sprint cars is that visibility is not great. A slick clay track is shiny with lights shining down on it, it was under a yellow meaning that most of the safety vehicles have their bright lights flashing, drivers are often looking through several layers of tear offs and/or dirty visors, and the right panel of the wing hangs much lower than the left side, and (while it doesn't look to be the case on Tony's car) some of them still run unpainted on the inside of the wing panels and those reflect all the flashing safety lights off the wing itself. He would have had to have been watching for a driver in a dark colored suit to his right (where the low hanging wing is) while also watching the recovery trucks approaching (and the guy on his fourwheeler approaching from the infield on his left) and watching what the other cars are doing.

I'm not saying whether or not he meant to scare the guy or anything, as we will never really know, but there are a lot of factors, and a tight dirt track at night in a sprint car isn't the same as far as visibility and space goes compared to most road courses and the like.

Regardless of the why/how, what happened is a massive shame that will scar both Stewart's career and the history of the small track (and possibly the town if it's anything like some of the small town tracks we have around here).

Thoughts go out to the Ward family.

Originally Posted by J Jay

As I don't know the cars very well, do they have throttle telemetry? Even though that wouldn't be conclusive (direct drive, different rear tyre sizes, sliding on dirt, etc.) it would help piece together the sequence of events.

Nothing like that, much too advanced (and therefore expensive) for this kind of stuff.

[Paradise City]

I've seen the footage. The video is obscure, it's darkish and it's actually unclear from the footage whether Stewart even saw him. From my untrained eye, he was off course but his speed seemed unabated which suggests he was surprised and could only swerve. In otherwords, on-site investigation is needed here.

[chernaudi]

Police are investigating, and I'd have to say to wait on their word before taking anything as gospel.

I'm a moderator at Motorsport Mayhem and Watkins Glen is my first race serving as a mod at that site, so I know that I might have to take some names there.

But anyways, we don't really have a clear picture of what actually happened yet. Only the investigators know what has happened, or are at least trying to piece together what happened, and, not to sound snotty, I'd trust their word more than people who are speculating on what happened who don't have the full picture.

I'd say give the benefit of the doubt until final word of the investigation comes out.

[Nicholosophy]

Regardless of the outcome of any investigation, drivers and officials need to start taking this stuff seriously. Hefty penalties should be given to any driver (or other nutjob) who enters the track and puts themselves into harms way. Same for any driver who recklessly tries to endanger the life of another driver.

One death is one too many.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

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.
"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."
Graves said he didn't believe it was intentional.
"You never mean to do something like that," Graves told Sporting News. "Kevin was ****ed and he let Tony know. And Tony was trying to give the message back that he wasn't happy either. He went over the line with it."

Ward obviously did the wrong thing, but seriously? A multi-million dollar, iconic, professional "racing driver" accelerated and as a result veered into this young racing driver, resulting in the death of 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. What for? Waving his hands in the air.

At a minimum, that's manslaughter. Stewart wouldn't have wanted to kill a man, but seriously. The man is disturbed and needs attention if that's what he's done. His career will have ended in the worst possible way for him, but hopefully he'll lose the respect of every single motorsports fan that he no longer deserves, although I wish no ill health to Tony.