Posted on 08/10/2014 5:04:09 AM PDT by CaptainK
NASCAR star Tony Stewart hit and killed another driver who was walking on the track in a sprint car race on Saturday night.
The other driver, Kevin Ward Jr., had collided with Stewart on the previous lap, leaving Ward’s car with a flat tire and pushed into the wall. As officials threw a caution, Ward left his car and began walking down the track — gesturing angrily toward Stewart — before being clipped and dragged 50 feet by Stewart’s car.
Several spectators told Bob Pockrass of The Sporting News that Stewart appeared to throttle his car before colliding with Ward.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Let's consider these factors:
1) it was nighttime, and with the lights on that dirt track it's harder to see the contrast between light and dark objects. Because Ward was wearing a nearly black-color racing suit, that would have made seeing him on the track very difficult.
2) Ward should never have gone to the center of the track even with a full-track yellow. The fact another driver nearly hit him before the collision showed Ward was already in a highly dangerous situation and he ran the risk of being run over by someone else on the track anyway.
Ward should have gotten off the track as soon as the accident happened and settled his dispute with Stewart after the race, even if it came to fisticuffs. If that happened, Stewart would have been admonished by NASCAR officials and we'd all written off this incident as another case of "that's racin'."
.........it would be easy to give Tony the benefit of the doubt insofar as WHAT was his state of mind at that instant, meaning, did he have any intent?
I personally don’t know and really no one knows but Tony and his maker.
That said, I do believe Tony was, most likely, trying to intimidate the kid by getting close to him!
But then my next thought, and belief, is that Tony did not set out with malice and intent to run over Kevin and kill him. What a waste..........of both lives.
Tony’s never going to be a Championship Driver again. There will always be some doubters every time he walks into a room.
New to the news and the conversation, I would tend to support this line of thinking.
If a pro like Stewart were to engage in a novice event like this, especially as the main draw, then he has an obligation to be a role model to the up-and-coming talent by embodying the behaviors that are expected from leaders in their sport. This means, above all, by demonstrating proper safety precautions in order to show the juniors that NASCAR takes safety very seriously at all levels of the sport.
If instead, Stewart demonstrated bump and scare, then he missed an opportunity to do some real good for the sport and the next generation of driver.
-PJ
Kevin’s line on the lap before was way to high for him to maintain the speed of the pack. He slowed and was hit in his front left wheel by Tony’s right rear wheel. Thats racing.
Everything that happened after Kevin got out of his car, was no one else fault but his own. Into the midst of many oncoming 700 horsepower racing machines is no place to express rage.
Let me let you in on a little something, those disclaimers are not worth the paper they are written on. And when you have a civil standard of proof and enough footage to argue malicious intent, there is going to be a wrongful death settlement. Period.
Stop using Reason! Isn’t it obvious that Tony Zimmerman purposely murdered Treyvon Ward?
If instead, Stewart demonstrated bump and scare, then he missed an opportunity to do some real good for the sport and the next generation of driver.
If the kid took the bump well, he would have a story forever about the race where the big-time driver spu him and gave him a flat. Or, he could get mad and killed.
Long ago a network had a dumb show where minor celebrities did stuff against pro athletes. One was a car race and the pro was Dale Earnhardt. The B-lister wouldn't give way to Dale and Dale bumped him then put him into the barriers. The celeb took it in stride.
What’s amazing here is Tony Stewart is such a household name. Even if one doesn’t follow Nascar, one has probably heard of him.
My thought is Tony Stewart being called out by this kid decided to give him a dirt shower. Instead he ended up giving him a dirt nap.
But this was during a caution when competition was suspended. I'm saying that Stewart had a higher obligation to demonstrate proper caution procedure to juniors in the race, and he failed to do that.
-PJ
Did he bump the other car during caution or racing? I thought the bump and spin caused the caution.
Failed to do that last year, also. Caused a wreck that severely injured a 19 yr. old. Same track, I believe.
Agreed. A game of chicken gone bad.
It’s still vehicular homicide. And as far as I know, it’s still a crime.
...but he has a history of this type stuff, right Nancy Grace?
Google "racing fuel cell" to find out why gas explosions in wrecked race cars are pretty rare. Drivers know that.
The damage that the dead kid's car sustained wasn't bad, it's very unlikely that car was about to explode. But if he really wanted to get away from that car, he could have run along the wall rather than running directly into the flow of traffic. But that's exactly what he did, and that tells me he wasn't worried about his car exploding.
A lot of sprint car races require radio comm with track officials. I just don’t know if all of them do or if this particular one does.
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