That was my thought as well. He realized he was gonna hit him and tried to kick the car out for a harder angle to veer around him but it wasn't enough.
Tony Stewart hits driver Kevin Ward in sprint car incident....
- Thread starter ThomasL
- Start date
its a sport and people get worked up like myself but we have to remember that they are professionals and bad things happen intential or not. i felt bad but they all get paid millions to do something the other 99% of people cant do but look on as a spectator.
just a reminder look at what happened to earnhart sr. just saying
just a reminder look at what happened to earnhart sr. just saying
highly doubtful.
The car that was involved in the original incident just happens to be the one that runs him over and causes his death? Tony was clearly a line higher, do you disagree? I think Tony was trying to teach the kid a lesson and it backfired. I don't believe the whole it's not well lit. Several other cars cleared him without issue. If Tony doesn't get criminally charged he surely will lose a wrongful death suit for millions. There is video evidence of him making no effort to get out of the way. Except for him blipping the throttle? So was that done to scare him, or avoid him? That is to be determined.
Remember when Tony Stewart threw punches at Joey Logano last year at Pocono? Joey didn't even know why. Tony has a history of being confrontational.
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what does Tony and Logano have to do with it? are you implying he was pissed at the kid? for doing what exactly? call Stewart a hothead all you want but the only hothead we saw was a kid who made a very poor choice. as i said earlier, Stewart more than likely didn't even realize the kid wrecked. and you're right, there is video evidence of him not making an effort to get out of the way-Kevin Ward that is.
and every other car wasn't being targeted by the kid who thought Stewart had wrecked him. car 45 barely misses the kid just before.
i'm not even a Stewart fan, but this witch hunt and fear of blaming the dead is ridiculous.
It was at Fontana, I was in the Speedway Club section almost in front of the pitstalls where that happened.
I am a huge Smoke fan, and fully know his temperament. Tony fashions himself after AJ Foyt, even runs AJ's number. Knowing what a sprint car will do when the throttle is blipped like that, I think Tony saw him at the last instance and tried to avoid Ward at the last second. He might have been driving a higher line to see if the kid was ok for all we know.
^ yup, car in front of stewart reportedly had to swerve to avoid ward, that was reported by a sheriff.
It doesnt help that ward is wearing all black too, hard to see at night.
It doesnt help that ward is wearing all black too, hard to see at night.
Hot head 20 year old kid stepped in front of a 900+hp sprint car doing 40or so mph and didn't expect to get hit?!? Not Stewarts fault in the least bit. He should have some credit as he tried to avoid by stepping the back end out to miss the kid.
For you sprint car guys, don't they have some kind of rule that states don't leave the car unless you are on fire? Wait to get extracted?
For you sprint car guys, don't they have some kind of rule that states don't leave the car unless you are on fire? Wait to get extracted?
That is a generally accepted rule anytime you are on a track. Every HPDE I have been to they say in the driver's meeting to stay in the car until the marshals instruct you to get our, or if the car is on fire. But always try to pull off to a marshal stand and never walk on the track.
WTF that's not what I meant at all. Tony just killed a person. That mentally is not something you just get over. That's why he won't get back in the car.
yeah except that throttle blip was way way before where the kid was standing and tony was going way faster than the previous driver.
It's really hard to judge from that one video. There has gotta be more out there.
It's really hard to judge from that one video. There has gotta be more out there.
Gotcha. So you think his emotional Trauma will keep him from driving?
My opinion in simplier terms you're driving a car with your buddy. You act recklessly or don't avoid a situation causing the car to wreck killing your friend. Would you not be charged with negligent homicide? Definitely sued by the family for wrongful death, which depending on the award and public fallout would kill his career. That's what I'm saying.
Oh, and bravo for Tony issuing a statement. Most likely written by a publicist. If you're truly sorry, man up and get in front of a camera and say it.
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Stop being stupid he did nothing wrong.
On a caution you dont drive right in the grove unless you have to. You drive down low or high and cool your tires off. Tony never hit the other driver to cause the crash and probably never knew the kid wrecked.
Sprint cars go left by design, so on a caution it is a constant right-left correction rhythm going on. As none of the tires are the same size and they dont have right side brakes. So if you stab the breaks it is going to rotate the the car about the left front swinging the right rear out. So if Tony would have slammed on breaks he would have hit him. Would have been worse. But Tony knows you dont slam on brakes in sprint car because it is direct drive and would kill the engine and since they dont have starters and have to be pust started, drivers last resort is hitting the brakes. It is just your mindset the whole time.
If you have to stop you knock it out of gear, which is not easy to do and certainly not something you can do in a split second reaction. Also the best way to even do that is to blip the throttle and knock it out at the same time.
Further more a sprint car has a blind spot out near the right front check it out here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfIlFUzE9iw
IMHO Tony was riding the top cooling his tires, switching to the bottom to go around the crash through the turn. Car in front him blocked his view of how far down he should have been. The kid lunged at Tony and he never seen him until the kid went the through the blind spot. Sprint cars are about impossible to move down to the left with out rotating the right rear out. So Tony did the only thing he could and tried to force it to swing out the left rear. If you pause to video at the just the right frame you can see the wheels pointed to the right which is the only way to get the car away from the kid since the right rear is already several inches wider than the right front.
In my eyes Tony is in the clear.
Sprint cars go left by design, so on a caution it is a constant right-left correction rhythm going on. As none of the tires are the same size and they dont have right side brakes. So if you stab the breaks it is going to rotate the the car about the left front swinging the right rear out. So if Tony would have slammed on breaks he would have hit him. Would have been worse. But Tony knows you dont slam on brakes in sprint car because it is direct drive and would kill the engine and since they dont have starters and have to be pust started, drivers last resort is hitting the brakes. It is just your mindset the whole time.
If you have to stop you knock it out of gear, which is not easy to do and certainly not something you can do in a split second reaction. Also the best way to even do that is to blip the throttle and knock it out at the same time.
Further more a sprint car has a blind spot out near the right front check it out here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfIlFUzE9iw
IMHO Tony was riding the top cooling his tires, switching to the bottom to go around the crash through the turn. Car in front him blocked his view of how far down he should have been. The kid lunged at Tony and he never seen him until the kid went the through the blind spot. Sprint cars are about impossible to move down to the left with out rotating the right rear out. So Tony did the only thing he could and tried to force it to swing out the left rear. If you pause to video at the just the right frame you can see the wheels pointed to the right which is the only way to get the car away from the kid since the right rear is already several inches wider than the right front.
In my eyes Tony is in the clear.
Investigation is ongoing. Not that I'd like to see Tony prosecuted. But to me it was avoidable.
Wards hips rotated around roughly 4 times , while his upper part of his body remained straight.twisting his spine and destroying most of his vital organs
yup, all Ward had to do was stay in his car.
Well, let me play devils advocate here.
When I watch THIS video it sounds like he blips the throttle a few seconds before he hits him. I understand you can steer by accelerating, but it just seems like a pretty big coincidence that he was the one who "guided" him into the wall, and he was the only one who subsequently went on the high side of that turn and needed to use his throttle to avoid hitting him.
I am also not so sure he didn't mean to "guide" him into the wall in the first place. I may not know much about racing, but I do know Tony is a damn good driver who has been known to be aggressive. To me it looked like he took that initial turn really wide to keep position, and the kid hit the wall, which I have zero issue with. I do believe that he realized this, and when he saw the kid out of his car he took insult to that and wanted to give him a little scare.
Let's look at it this way. Had everything gone down the way it did, but without the kid getting hit and only being "sprayed" by Tony, would anyone be shocked or saying "Tony wasn't trying to scare/spray him, he was trying to get out of his way!". If he hadn't gotten hit, I think there would be some people here saying they were glad Tony sprayed that little hothead.
Now, I am not saying this is what happened at all. Tony is the only one who can say what his intentions were. From that one bad angled video though, I do not remove all blame from Tony.
EDIT: I just want to make another thing clear. Even if Tony did mean to "scare" the kid, I would still place 95% of the blame on the kid for being an idiot and getting out of the car.
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That's horrible. If only he would've stayed in his car.
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