http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/11333895/tony-stewart-hits-foot-competitor-sprint-car-race-new-york-state
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qILmIyG6qno
Well taht won't look good on Tony's job resume. Dang kid should have just stay'ed out of the way and punched Tony out in the pits
I feel like charges plus a lawsuit will soon be forthcoming. I agree the kid should have stayed off the track and waited on him in the pit. He didn't, however, and the video paints a disturbing picture of Tony Stewart.
I know the kid ran out on the track, but it sure didn't look like Stewart tried to slow down or dodge him. This is bad, bad, bad stuff.
Quote from: savduck on August 10, 2014, 05:56:21 PM
I know the kid ran out on the track, but it sure didn't look like Stewart tried to slow down or dodge him. This is bad, bad, bad stuff.
True! And actually, if you watch the Youtube video with sound you can hear him accelerate just before he hits the kid. I don't want to speculate on what actually happened but it "looks" awful from my perspective. I have truly been disturbed by this since I first saw the video this morning.
The fact that Tony wrecked him and then ran over him bothers me. I'm sure that Tony was only trying to get close enough to scare him but went a little wide. I'm sorry but feel that Tony needs to go away for a while. He messed up bad.
the kid should have never got out of his car on the track imo. Stewart is going to have a hard time going over what he did. I would think it would be a long time before he gets back in a car just because of dealing with this emotionally.
They are both at fault. The kid should have never got out of his car and charged towards Tony like some bad a$$. On the flip side, Tony should have made more of an effort to avoid the kid. The fact is Tony probably DID intend to "brush" him a little. But since the kid was charging after him like that.... Nothing will happen to Tony criminally, end of story.
As for civil ... yes Tony may have to throw a few million to the family.
Quote from: FL-Boss on August 10, 2014, 07:38:38 PM
They are both at fault. The kid should have never got out of his car and charged towards Tony like some bad a$$. On the flip side, Tony should have made more of an effort to avoid the kid. The fact is Tony probably DID intend to "brush" him a little. But since the kid was charging after him like that.... Nothing will happen to Tony criminally, end of story.
As for civil ... yes Tony may have to throw a few million to the family.
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Quote from: FL-Boss on August 10, 2014, 07:38:38 PM
They are both at fault. The kid should have never got out of his car and charged towards Tony like some bad a$$. On the flip side, Tony should have made more of an effort to avoid the kid. The fact is Tony probably DID intend to "brush" him a little. But since the kid was charging after him like that.... Nothing will happen to Tony criminally, end of story.
As for civil ... yes Tony may have to throw a few million to the family.
I don't see it that way. If there was ANY other intention than trying to avoid the kid he should face some sort of charges. The kid was out of line but what he did was not illegal. If Tony tried to "brush" him and ended up hitting/killing him in the process then that seems like negligent homicide or vehicular manslaughter.
The two things that bother me the most about this is that you can hear him accelerate just before he hits the kid and that the car swerved in a direction that doesn't suggest he was trying to avoid him. I hope it wasn't as it seemed though. You'd hate to think it would ever go that far, whether on a dirt track for a few hundred bucks or on a NASCAR track with the Sprint Cup on the line.
From what I saw on the video I don't think Tony saw him till the last second, because of the car in front of him, I'm sure of he tried to hit him or brush him, he would be in jail now. So sad for all involved..
Quote from: mwr on August 11, 2014, 12:00:00 AM
From what I saw on the video I don't think Tony saw him till the last second, because of the car in front of him, I'm sure of he tried to hit him or brush him, he would be in jail now. So sad for all involved..
My thoughts exactly" it also appears that Tonys car pulls to the right after the impact was made. IMO. The report does stat that the car ahead of him swerved out of the way just before tony hit him. This being said I don't think tony tried to hit him on purpose.
I heard supposedly that there was a "Go-Pro" video camera on Stewart's car. That video might offer a very interesting perspective if this indeed is true. What keeps on getting my attention is that this happened during a caution.
I'm sure there will be some more video that emerges from somewhere. But again, either way I find it hard to believe Tony would face, or more importantly be convicted of, any criminal misconduct.
The kid was charging after him, dim lit part of the track at night, wearing a dark racing suit = not good. Enough to put some of the blame on him...
The race was under caution ! Why did Tony step on the gas & swerve towards him ? I think he meant to scare Ward and instead he hit him !
2 wrongs dont make a right, 1 kid could have tried to kick Tonys a$$ in the garage area but for Gods sake dont run into on coming traffic under caution or not. 2 dont try and scare the carp out a the kid ( just can't believe Tony would try and hit him). did Tony not have a spotter at the track??? he should have let Tony know the kid was out of the car looking for him to come around. just a REALLY bad deal for all parties involved.
Sprint car drivers don't have spotters like they do in NASCAR.
I am a huge racing fan and a huge Tony Stewart fan. I watched Kevin Ward Jr. race on July 4th of this year in the same series that this incident happened in, the Empire Super Sprints, at Can Am Speedway in Lafargeville, NY. I also attended the NASCAR Watkins Glen race on Sunday. This is 2 years in a row that something unfortunate or, in this case, tragic, has happened to cause Stewart to not run in the race. Last year it was his broken leg from a sprint car crash.
I know Stewart's history could raise some question as to if he was trying to intimidate Kevin and made a tragic mistake. I absolutely don't think he would try to hit Ward. Would he try to rev the engine or make a gesture at him if he knew what was happening? Possibly. I personally know quite a few racers and also frequent a lot of racing message boards and anybody that has driven a sprint car seems to say a couple of things that are consistent from one person to another. The visibility in these cars is super low when you have roll bars, a helmet, a HANS device that restricts your head movement tremendously, a dark track, a young man wearing dark clothing, dirt on you visor, a wing that hangs down the right side of the car, and cars in front you. By the time Tony ever saw Kevin, he may have had a split second to comprehend what was going on. A few people have seen the video in slow motion and said that it looked as though Kevin was trying to punch the wing on Tony's car. In order to get that close, he would have need to be in between the right side tires, since these cars are open wheel.
I guess truly only Tony knows if he did something completely stupid and wasn't thinking about the consequence that could arise by making a gesture with his car or if he didn't see Kevin until the last second and made a terrible judgement call in his reaction. If you watch closely in the video, it looked to me that Stewart ran Ward up the track, but I don't know they ever actually made contact before Ward got into the wall. Stewart may not have even known that Ward wrecked until he came back around and may not have known that Ward's frustration was going to be aimed at him. The car in front of Stewart almost hit Kevin before Stewart got there as well.
For me, being a race fan, a Stewart fan and watching this young man race in person, it was a hard night once I heard the news. I was up all night checking anywhere I could think of waiting to hear the news that nobody wanted to hear, that Kevin Ward Jr. had died. I can't imagine what anybody involved must be going through right now. Some tracks locally have already made changes to their rules about drivers getting out of their cars before officials get there. It's sad, but sometimes it takes a tragedy such as this for changes to be made to help make the sport safer down the road.
No sane person would WILLINGLY run over another person on foot on a race track - think about it , it's literally impossible for someone to intentionally WANT to do such a action - the consequences for such a action are catastrophic - in the eyes of the law and the public it's a tragic accident unless there is some other dash camera footage and if there is it will likely show a charging man you can barely see in a dark suit in the dark
But aside from that prayers out to the families , this is sad
Quote from: Old Gobbler on August 12, 2014, 08:43:37 PM
No sane person would WILLINGLY run over another person on foot on a race track - think about it , it's literally impossible for someone to intentionally WANT to do such a action - the consequences for such a action are catastrophic - in the eyes of the law and the public it's a tragic accident unless there is some other dash camera footage and if there is it will likely show a charging man you can barely see in a dark suit in the dark
But aside from that prayers out to the families , this is sad
I also don't think he would try to run the kid over. However, I do believe there is a possibility that he could have been trying to "big league" the kid only to have something unforeseen happen. I'm not saying that IS what happened but, after watching the video, it's certainly a possibility. For now, the only two people who know what really happened are Tony Stewart and the good Lord.
There is a new video out that plainly shows that Ward grabbed the back part of Stewert's car and in fact killed himself when he couldn't hold on any longer. It wasn't Stewert's fault at least Ward's death.
Got a link?
The video I watched I believe was this one, but has been removed by the user probably because someone was putting heat on them for posting it showing the proof. Here's what it says in the link.
Slo-Mo Video shows Kevin Ward jump and grab Tony Stewart's Car
Disclaimer: First of all, I am not a fan of NASCAR, Tony Stewart, or even racing in general. I have no agenda or dog in this fight. The one thing that bothers me is the media hype surrounding the "intentional" or "murderous actions" used by Tony Stewart against Kevin Ward in this incident. There is clearly a story if Tony Stewart tries to kill Ward, but the news story only lessens in hype the more Ward becomes the aggressor and is to blame. In this video, BTLS.com released today, you can see 3 things pretty clearly. 1) Tony Stewart doesn't "swerve" to hit Kevin Ward until he has already passed him. 2) Kevin Ward latches onto the rear right wing of Tony Stewart's sprint car. 3) Kevin Ward was not sucked under or into the tire but rather thrown from Tony Stewart's car after trying to grab on.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a0d_1407932282&comments=1