Horrible tragedy. Yes Stewart is a dick. That does not make him a murderer. It's all on Wards on head unfortunately. He was a complete undisciplined moron to walk into a live track to confront a race car during a live race. This crap happens in NASCAR, but have you ever seen a pissed off driver walk on a live track in other motorsports disciplines? Can you imagine a Formula One driver running across Eau Rouge to throw a helmet or curse at the driver who spin him out? Hell no.
I'm not a racing fan and care nothing about whatever makes people hate Tony Stewart. But I saw the video and what I saw was a guy in a dark suit on a dimly lit track that walked right into the path of a racing car. The other drivers will be testifying about what they saw and what was done or could have been done. At best, Stewart had insufficient time to get inside and miss the guy who advanced right into danger. At worst Stewart tried to shower the guy with dirt and miscalculated. No way was he trying to hit the guy or he could have front-ended him. But it's clear to me that this driver Ward is the winner of the Darwin award.
Home video cameras have omni-directional microphones, meaning they have a widely dispersed pickup pattern. There's no way to listen to the audio pickup of numerous cars on a race track and determine which engine you are hearing rev up.
From what I hear, several race series have a rule along those lines, but it is rarely enforced....why? Because fans respond positively when drivers get out of the car to confront another driver. Hopefully this will change those attitudes, but if so, its horrible that it will have taken a death to make it happen.
Sorry, but in this instance, the video is clear because you can also pick up the noise of the initial contact/corner pin in the exact same spot. And again, there are eye-witnesses who were there. Whether it was all just an unfortunate timing issue or not, I believe Tony will say that he throttled up in an effort to steer away from Ward.
Agreed 100%. At the same time, I can see some discussion occurring over the yellow flag rules, what constitutes a "safe" speed under a yellow, and subsequent enforcement.
If that's the case, then fans have some bit of responsibility as well as race officials and the racing community as a whole. I suspect this concept, and Stewart's fame, is what might have driven Ward out of his car and on to the track. He has made a name for himself now but in the tragically wrong way.
I have not seen a single person say that Stewart meant to hit him. Not one. Maybe I've missed that point of view but only an idiot would think that. There are plenty of people that think Stewart tried to send him a message and plenty others that think he did absolutely nothing wrong. It's impossible and silly to think that anyone but Tony Stewart knows the answer to that question. We all have our opinions but no one knows for sure. Here are the things I know for sure. Tony Stewart is quite literally one of the best drivers in the world. Several other drivers managed to miss this guy as they went by. I think the kid wanted to send a message by stepping close to the car and Stewart wanted to send a message by fishtailing close to him. Neither backed down not realizing the others intention and a young guy is dead because of it. One thing is for certain, Ward made a massive mistake walking into that traffic like that whether he gets hit or not. That's just stupid.
I am a NASCAR fan and I've always liked Tony Stewart. Probably for the same reasons that some people hate him. He is an aggressive driver who won't back down and doesn't take any shit from anybody. As a three time Cup winner you know he is a good enough and experienced enough driver to be in control of his race car in almost any situation. He might goose another car to make a point but I doubt he would do it to a guy on foot even if he was pissed off at him. The car directly in front of Stewart's swerved to miss the kid and Tony's car was right on top of him with no time to avoid him.
