Driver Hurt, Tony Stewart Involved

[chassisdude]

at least 2 people need to stand back and look at there own lives . have you ever screwed up ,you don't know what happened . rush to judgement ' dumb ass's

Well I guess you have no value to a life, calling me a dumb ass, shows what kind of person you are and your feelings towards your fellow man. Think about if that young man was your family or even close friend, you would still be calling me a dumb ass, wow I kind of feel bad for you.

[RSB]

I watched it a few times and it looks like Stewart's tires are turned to the right. He may have swerved at the kid to try and scare him. Only Stewart knows for sure. AND will have to live with it for the rest of his life.
The kid must have thought that Stewart stuffed him in the wall but it looks like he should have lifted when he was running out of race track. I'm sure Stewart didn't know he was there. What an awful tragedy.

[shorttrackcar1]

It looks like too me maybe the kid ran up to tonys car and maybe he got to close to tonys right front tire and got tangle up with it and tonys car jerk to the right and he was ran over the rest of the way thats what it look like to me. and if you notice tony stop just up the track.

[dave41]

people

I call anyone a dumb ass when they call tony a murderer you don't know all facts .Dave 41 O'Steen

[OWM94]

How about since none of us were there, we don't form an opinion without knowing ALL of the facts. Its tragic what happened, for all parties involved. Tony has to live with this the rest of his life, and someone lost their life, in this incident. I really don't think this is a time for bashing. This will already bring enough bad publicity to our sport as it is, without everyone feeding into the whole "murderer" notion.

[turnleft]

100%

I am 100% sure Tony did not run over his competitor on purpose, if you watch the video, the car in front of Stewart almost ran him over also. The track lighting looked very bad also.

The only good that could possible come out of this horrible situation is that tracks start to enforce the caution flag, as it should be. Here in florida we have seen to many hot head racers, ramming other cars under caution, speeding around the track under caution, speeding through the pits, and sooner or later, a racer or track worker is going to get hurt bad. Some of the tracks (a-dale), even promote this kind of behavior. Vince

[JC26]

I am 100% sure Tony did not run over his competitor on purpose, if you watch the video, the car in front of Stewart almost ran him over also. The track lighting looked very bad also.

The only good that could possible come out of this horrible situation is that tracks start to enforce the caution flag, as it should be. Here in florida we have seen to many hot head racers, ramming other cars under caution, speeding around the track under caution, speeding through the pits, and sooner or later, a racer or track worker is going to get hurt bad. Some of the tracks (a-dale), even promote this kind of behavior. Vince

I agree with you 110%.

You run into someone under yellow, you're black flagged. You get out of your car other than to survey damage or to hitch a ride with the tow truck, you're DQ'd and you're gonna miss a few races. I watched the video a dozen times and I just can't see where Tony swerved at him. It looks like he ran right down into Tonys path and got too close. Either way, we can all sit here and go back and forth about opinions of what happened, but the ONLY 3 things that are in concrete right now is this young man made a bad choice getting out of his car and walking into the racing groove, and that his family and Tony Stewart will have to live with this for the rest of their lives.

[Phil Jacques]

I am going to say this... I have a friend who told me on FB today that he frequents this track and that it is very poorly lit especially in turn 1 and 2. Remember a Talladega race a number of years ago where it was called due to darkness, but as we watched on TV did not understand because it looked light out. The drivers all interviewed had said it was much darker than it probably looked on TV as did the TV commentators. The fact that Kevin was wearing all black, in a poorly lit condition may very well have had something to do with this. A big part possibly. It's very possibly that Tony did not see Kevin until the last second and tried to juke the throttle to get the car to turn sharply left. As it has been explained to me (I know nothing about sprint cars) these cars turn by planting the RR with throttle through the corners and that may have been Tony's thought process rather than jam the brakes and slide directly into him.

To the point of a competitor being on foot going after another competitor to show their displeasure... I don't agree with it, nor have I ever. I have always been fearful of this exact circumstance. Unfortunately the worst circumstance possible took place last night and we lost a great young up and coming talent and from all I have heard, a really good kid. Unfortunately any time you are on foot going towards a race car at any speed, you put yourself at risk. This is the exact reason that even on the best lit tracks in NASCAR, safety crews have bright colors on for visibility.

I can not think of any reason in which a driver would ever intentionally aim for another competitor on foot. It just makes no sense to me.

None of us know what truly happened here except God and Tony, and truly hope that this was not intentional in any way... But I think we all agree this is an extremely sad and unfortunate situation... My thoughts and prayers are with both Kevin Ward's family and Tony and his family right now... Very unfortunate.

Remember, we are all mortal and can be gone at any time.

[jbonez21]

Very upsetting news. Tony had an altercation with this 20 year old driver and now he is dead. Similar to the father who punched the soccer referee causing the referee to die. Maybe he didn't MEAN to kill him, but intent really doesn't matter because he did.

Very disappointed in Tony. Nascar should force him to be removed as owner of Stewart-Haas and El Dora speedway. Just like Donald Sterling, Donald Sterling made a racist remark, seemingly peanuts compared to KILLING a 20 year kid.

[Frasson118]

Nascar can't do a thing about Eldora. Tony owns it, end of story.

[OldSchool+]

I will assume those that believe it was an accident watched the video.

Please explain why Tony's foot was down as Mr. Ward was...no longer standing.

Phil, as has been mentioned, those cars have a ton of stagger and on dirt, when you light the tires, the RR corner kicks out. Every time.

[kletus]

I did'nt know NASCAR was in charge of policing Sprint car races at short tracks;
nor did I know they can take away a race track from an owner. Why can't we all just pray for all parties involved and not JUDGE. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ?

[Matt Albee]

NASCAR has nothing to do with any aspect of this tragedy. That won't stop them from grandstanding every chance they get.

[OldSchool+]

Kletus,

Some folks tend to either defend or condemn a given driver regardless of circumstance.

On the other hand, given a simple spin out, there is always the "did he get spun out or come down on the other guy?" question.

Most folks come to a conclusion one way or the other.

Although the outcome here is tragic, I don't see how attempting to understand what happened is any different, or a "bad" thing.

[bubba]

Well, I watched the video, to see if i could make up my own mind about what happened and the reality is I cant. Tony is certainly a hot head and a cocky guy so it would not be out of character for him to try to scare the kid or intimidate him a little - but was it a case of that going wrong or the fact that he just didnt see him till it was too late?

There are two people that know what happened and one is dead. Fault lays all around in this deal, but I will be really curious what Tony does on his own about it.

He's not a horrible guy and i would bet anything i had that he wasnt trying to kill the kid. Scare him - maybe, kick up some mud at him - maybe. That will be something only he knows for sure.