DAMN!! Tony Stewart kills fellow driver, striking them on track with his race car.

[~Barn~]

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com...race-has-died/

[~Barn~]

Since this is the world we live in...
Click me for the video.

Needless to say it's disturbing. I wish the racer wouldn't have let his emotions influence him toward the confrontation; it cost him his life.

[buddahson]

RIP to the young racer. This is an unfortunate situation and in my opinion both racers made major mistakes. Ward should not have exited his car and especially should not have proceeded through the hot track as he did. It then appears to me that Stewart tried to scare him by getting close and spinning the tires. He didn't need to do that and could have been more cautious. If it were up to me, I'd charge him with involuntary manslaughter and permanently expel him from all forms of motorsport.

[~Barn~]

I expect him to get charged also.

[kawasakirob]

I dont understand why Stewart would get charged. When someone crashes at HPR do they run out on the track and try to fight someone....as bikes start to come around? Dude was an idiot. The only reason its getting so much hype is because its Tony Stewart. Guarantee if it was some yocal from nowhere nobody would give a crap.

[~Barn~]

I don't think that people are trying to suggest that the young (now dead) racer didn't do anything stupid and idiotic, but T. Stewart did appear to "whip" at him with his car. You - in your words - "don't understand why" he would get charged, and I can't understand how he's going to avoid it.
buddahson hit the nail head perfectly.

[kawasakirob]

The dude looked like he was trying to jump on the car. Tony acted and slid the rear -the opposite- way of the guy but he got clipped anyway. He was also wearing full black at a night race and the visibility was low. And I'm sure Tony was not expecting to see some guy pissed off in the middle of the track trying to confront him, when he did, he tried to act accordingly and the guy got clipped. Its like trying to blame a driver for hitting a deer in the middle of the night

[buddahson]

Another driver can be seen slowing and sticking to the bottom of the track to avoid Ward. It would appear that Stewart was also moving at a speed that would allow him to avoid Ward, but I don't see him make any obvious adjustments until just before the moment of impact. I don't think he intentionally hit Ward, but it also doesn't appear he tried to give him any extra room. He's a professional driver and I have a tough time believing he wasn't aware Ward was coming into the middle of the track. Also, the track appears well lit to me. There is plenty enough light to see what happens in the video, and camera lenses reduce light significantly.

[#1Townie]

Meh.. Could care less.

[Gramps]

I don't follow NASCAR at all but it has a huge following and some pretty powerful fans. I would say that before they throw a major player out of the game forever, that more than one phone call will take place to discuss the financial ramifications.

It's easy to figure out the powers in charge at NASCAR are very aware of the financial side of how things work. It will be interesting to see what happens in this situation and if the money outweighs the various other issues involved.

[bulldog]

I am stuck on this one. The guy was a idiot to run on the track, but it did seem like Stewart could have been more cautious and I do wonder if he tried to scared this guy and then hit him by mistake. Hard for me to tell from that video. Overall I do think you should never run onto a track and are taking a risk by doing this......

[Colorado S14]

Always sad to see someone die but these Nascar and Sprint Car guys are a bunch of hot headed yokels and this was bound to happen. I am a die-hard Formula 1 and Moto GP fan and when those guys crash they usually just get out of the car and off the track as fast as possible, here and there you get two guys that end up in a sand trap and they exchange a shove or two but it is off the track nonetheless. I can't tell you how many highlights I have seen from Nascar and Sprint where there is a driver out of his car running back on to the track to confront the guy in the 3600lb steel battering ram driving past at 85mph under yellow or throwing his helmet at the other guys car. Add to that the fact that Nascar is the Real Housewives of racing and the announcers and sport love that shit because it sells tickets and as such have not done much to curb these actions and this was bound to happen. If they had done the right thing years ago and started giving guys half season bans for this crap this incident could have been avoided.

[~Barn~]

<Snip...>. If they had done the right thing years ago and started giving guys half season bans for this crap this incident could have been avoided.

Fantastic take! I was just telling Damir this exact same thing yesterday, that if they [the race sanctioning bodies] had a tradition of dropping the hammer on guys for going onto the track for "confrontations" like this, that this young man would still probably be alive. And even still, T. Stewart and others of his ilk, would/could certainly still have plenty of outlets for their hotheadedness too. Do your WWE shit in the pits, if that's what "the sport" expects of you. Maybe this was just a freak accident that's all part of the theatrics of it all, but somebody is in fact still dead and if racing itself won't do anything to keep it from happening again, the law certainly should; what a mess. Great post though.

[Ezzzzy1]

If you think about the bigger picture... Stewart is actually more responsible for all of this. Think about when this kid was 10 and he was watching Tony chase guys down to give them his .02 cents. All the kid was doing was acting like one of his idols

[Ezzzzy1]

[konichd]

You'll see Tony Stewart get charged with 2nd degree manslaughter according to the news reports out today.

Stewart has a long history of "run ins' with fellow racers. Sad to see its went this far with no ramification, had it, Ward maybe alive today.

Lots of witnesses say Tony "blipped" the throttle making his car go right, intentionally into Ward's path. I think Tony intended to "scar" the guy but now his mistake took the life of a young and promising racer.

RIP Ward jr

[Captain Obvious]

From the video I saw, you could hear an engine rev. Assuming that was his car making the noise (you can see his car get sideways when the motor spins up) it would be a reasonable assumption that he meant to scare the kid. And his action, even if not intentional, caused the other racer to die.

I bet he gets charged. And I'm 100% confident he ends up in civil court with a very large suit against him. His track record of acting out violently is about to haunt him. While the kid was clearly wrong in running across the track, so isn't without fault, but this will end poorly for TS.

Pretty sure if I did that in WERA/MRA etc I would get tossed for the season at least. But I make them no money beyond registration fees (or used to) so it is easy to say that. Try biting the hand that feeds you.....

[Captain Obvious]

Meh.. Could care less.

Funny, you care enough to come in and post you don't care.....

[Generic]

Funny, you care enough to come in and post you don't care.....

Well he did say "Could care less" meaning he has a potential to care even less than his current level. Now if he had said "Couldn't care less" we'd know he was at the absolutely minimum of caring and probably wouldn't have posted.

[~Barn~]

It's part of Townie's charm.

[koop]

I don't know that you can make much of Stewart blipping the gas. I don't know much about these cars but I believe (as with most dirt racing) a lot of steering is done by throttle.

[konichd]

^^Its actually a key point of the ongoing investigation.

On a sprint car with staggered tires, blipping the throttle pitches the car right (hence how they turn with the front wheels at opposite lock).

[Captain Obvious]

^^Its actually a key point of the ongoing investigation.

On a sprint car with staggered tires, blipping the throttle pitches the car right (hence how they turn with the front wheels at opposite lock).

Yep, exactly. And pitching the car to the right puts it closer to the kid running along the track. Did just see the update on SC, the local sheriff is stating no charges, still under forensic investigation, etc, etc. Lighting, visibility from cockpit.

[konichd]

I'm guessing if you can race at 100+ MPH and see just fine you shouldn't have a problem on a yellow flag going 45 MPH. Goodbye Tony